Abstract
While investigating biomarkers for infection with salmonid alphavirus (SAV), the cause of pancreas disease (PD), a selective precipitation reaction (SPR) has been discovered in serum which could be an on‐farm qualitative test and an in‐laboratory quantitative assay for health assessments in aquaculture. Mixing serum from Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, with SAV infection with a sodium acetate buffer caused a visible precipitation which does not occur with serum from healthy salmon. Proteomic examination of the precipitate has revealed that the components are a mix of muscle proteins, for example enolase and aldolase, along with serum protein such as serotransferrin and complement C9. The assay has been optimized for molarity, pH, temperature and wavelength so that the precipitation can be measured as the change in optical density at 340 nm (Δ340). Application of the SPR assay to serum samples from a cohabitation trial of SAV infection in salmon showed that the Δ340 in infected fish rose from undetectable to a maximum at 6 weeks post‐infection correlating with histopathological score of pancreas, heart and muscle damage. This test may have a valuable role to play in the diagnostic evaluation of stock health in salmon.
Highlights
Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing livestock producing industry with an average annual growth rate of 3.2 per cent being described by the Food and Agriculture Organisation from 1961 to 2009 (FAO, 2012) with an estimated 154 million tonnes of fish being produced in 2011, overtaking production of wild catch fisheries
The mean ODD340 nm of pooled sera from diseased salmon (W4pc from the salmonid alphavirus (SAV) infection trial) was higher compared to sera from the pool of healthy salmon serum (PLA) giving absorbance changes of 0.94 ODD340 nm and 0.12 ODD340 nm, respectively, after 60 min and is shown in Fig. 2 demonstrating the outcome of a qualitative selective precipitation reaction (SPR) test
This study has identified a novel precipitation reaction which occurs when serum from Atlantic salmon with pancreas disease (PD) caused by SAV infection is mixed with a sodium acetate buffer at an optimized molarity of 0.6 M and at pH5.6
Summary
Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing livestock producing industry with an average annual growth rate of 3.2 per cent being described by the Food and Agriculture Organisation from 1961 to 2009 (FAO, 2012) with an estimated 154 million tonnes of fish being produced in 2011, overtaking production of wild catch fisheries. One of the most economically important fin fish is Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. Aquaculture of this species alone has increased from 1990 to 2010 at an average annual rate exceeding 9.2% (FAO, 2012); this growth is anticipated to continue to rise on the future. Despite this rise, the salmon farming industry is currently facing a number of barriers which may in the foreseeable future limit growth. One of the biggest challenges salmon aquaculture faces is that of infectious disease (Kibenge et al 2012). Among these salmonid alphavirus (SAV) infection is a major problem causing salmon pancreas disease (PD) which has pathological effects
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