Abstract
Lysozyme activity and spontaneous haemolytic activity (SH) were analysed in three repeat blood samples of n=960 fish from 34 full-sib groups within 12 paternal half-sib groups of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. At the first and second blood-sampling, the fish were vaccinated with a combined fish vaccine. After the third sampling, the fish were challenged with the pathogenic bacterium Vibrio anguillarum. A statistically significant effect of sire on lysozyme activity, SH activity, and survival after vibriosis challenge was found, providing evidence of significant genetic variation in these traits. The estimated heritabilities were low to moderate (0.1–0.3) for the SH activity, and relatively low (<0.1) for the lysozyme activity and survival after vibriosis challenge. The correlations between the three successive samplings were relatively high for the SH activity, but low for the lysozyme activity based on both phenotypic and full-sib records. The full-sib correlations between the lysozyme activity and SH activity were negative, suggesting the existence of negative genetic correlations between these parameters. The correlations between the lytic activities and survival after vibriosis challenge were in general non-significant, except for a negative phenotypic correlation between survival and lysozyme activity at second sampling.
Published Version
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