Understanding the relationship between genetic variants and traits of economic importance in aquaculture species is pertinent to selective breeding programmes. High-throughput sequencing technologies have enabled the discovery of large numbers of SNPs in Atlantic salmon, and high density SNP arrays now exist. A previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) using a high density SNP array (132K S...

The elongases of very long-chain fatty acids (Elovl) account for the rate-limiting condensation step of the elongation process in fatty acid (FA) biosynthesis in vertebrates. One member of the Elovl family, Elovl4, has been regarded as a critical enzyme in vertebrates in the production of the so-called very long-chain fatty acids (VLC-FA), a group of compounds that has been scarcely explored in...

Infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) is a viral disease currently presenting a major problem in the production of Atlantic salmon (Salmon salar). IPN can cause significant mortality to salmon fry within freshwater hatcheries and to smolts following transfer to seawater, although challenged populations show clear genetic variation in resistance. To determine whether this genetic variation includ...

Gamma tocopherol (gT) exhibits beneficial cardiovascular effects partly due to its anti-inflammatory activity. Important sources of gT are vegetable oils. However, little is known to what extent gT can be transferred into marine animal species such as Atlantic salmon by feeding. Therefore, in this study we have investigated the transfer of dietary gT into salmon. To this end, fish were fed a di...

Infectious Salmon Anemia virus (ISAv) poses a serious threat to fish farmers in Canada and globally. It can cause significant economic losses to Atlantic Salmon farming operations, and is a potential risk to wild Atlantic Salmon populations. Although improved farming and management practices have helped reduce the risk and impact of the disease, further outbreaks associated with new virulent st...

Today, over 94% of all adult Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) are in the aquaculture niche and wild numbers continue to decline while aquaculture numbers increase. The developmental and evolutionary forces in the aquaculture or “domestic” niche are so unlike those in the wild niche that two distinct biologies are being created from the original Atlantic salmon species. We may now need to recognize...

Ž . The replacement of fish meal protein with soybean meal SB or protein concentrates made Ž . Ž . from narrow-leafed lupin LP or field peas PP was investigated in extruded feeds for Atlantic Ž . salmon. Salmon 47 g were fed for 63 days on extruded feeds containing each of the plant meals to replace 25% and 33% of the fish meal protein and performance compared against a nutritionally Ž . balanc...

The ectoparasitic copepod, Caligus flexispina, is causing increasing problems in farmed salmonids in southern Chile. Field and experimental approaches were used to assess whether any of the three host species, rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, atlantic salmon Salmo salar and coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch, is preferentially colonized. Prevalence, abundance, density and developmental stages a...

We took a hierarchical approach to understanding Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) life history patterns by first comparing salmonids to other teleosts, next comparing Atlantic salmon to other salmonids, and finally, mapping correlations among individual life history traits within Atlantic salmon. The combination of anadromy, large eggs, nest construction and egg burial by females, and large size a...

Physiological and biochemical factors affecting carotenoid utilization in salmonid fish. Gregory Ian Page Carotenoid utilization in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum) and Atlantic salmon (Salmo sa/ar L.) has been investigated with respect to tissue distribution of carotenoids and the role of the liver on the bioavailability of the lipid soluble carotenoids, astaxanthin and canthaxanthi...