Abstract
Bio-logging devices can provide unique insights on the life of freely moving animals. However, implanting these devices often requires invasive surgery that causes stress and physiological side-effects. While certain medications in connection to surgeries have therapeutic capacity, others may have aversive effects. Here, we hypothesized that the commonly prescribed prophylactic treatment with enrofloxacin would increase the physiological recovery rate and reduce the presence of systemic inflammation following the intraperitoneal implantation of a heart rate bio-logger in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). To assess post-surgical recovery, heart rate was recorded for 21 days in trout with or without enrofloxacin treatment. Contrary to our hypothesis, treated trout exhibited a prolonged recovery time and elevated resting heart rates during the first week of post-surgical recovery compared to untreated trout. In addition, an upregulated mRNA expression of TNFα in treated trout indicate a possible inflammatory response 21 days post-surgery. Interestingly, the experience level of the surgeon was observed to have a long-lasting impact on heart rate. In conclusion, our study showed no favorable effects of enrofloxacin treatment. Our findings highlight the importance of adequate post-surgical recovery times and surgical training with regards to improving the welfare of experimental animals and reliability of research outcomes.
Highlights
Bio-logging devices can provide unique insights on the life of freely moving animals
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of pre-surgical prophylactic treatment with enrofloxacin on post-surgical recovery in freely swimming adult rainbow trout implanted with heart rate bio-loggers
The post-surgical recovery of heart rate was faster in untreated fish, as heart rate was significantly elevated relative to day 21 for six days in the untreated fish and seven days in ab-treated fish (F20,87.74 = 35.46, P < 0.001, Fig. 1B, F20,86.03 = 29.66, P < 0.001, Fig. 1C)
Summary
Bio-logging devices can provide unique insights on the life of freely moving animals. The recent technological developments and use of bio-logging and bio-telemetric devices in aquatic organisms has been proposed to open up a ‘panoramic window into the underwater world’[2] The use of these devices in freely swimming fish allow the continuous collection of high-resolution physiological and behavioural data (e.g. heart rate, blood flow and muscle activity) over long periods of time[3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. The fish is normally released back into the wild or into a large school of fish in an aquaculture setting for a relatively long period of time In such studies, the assessments of wound healing, inflammatory responses or general health of the individual fish is difficult. By analysing heart rate during recovery, we can determine when fish have fully recovered from post-surgical stress as a low, stable resting heart rate coincides with the low levels of circulating plasma cortisol commonly associated with an ‘unstressed’ fish[3,4,29]
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