BACKGROUND The detection of pathogens at early stages of infection is a key point for disease control in aquaculture. Therefore, accurate diagnostic procedures are a must. Real-time PCR has been a mainstay in diagnostics over the years due to its speed, specificity, sensitivity, reproducibility and throughput; as such, real-time PCR is a target for improvement. Nevertheless, to validate a novel...

To examine the behavior of the estrogenic biomarker vitellogenin (VTG) under the combined impact of estrogens and pathogens, parasite-infected or noninfected rainbow trout were exposed to two doses of 17β-estradiol (E2). Infected and E2-exposed fish showed significantly lower hepatic VTG mRNA levels than healthy fish. Transcriptome data suggest that this was due to energetic constraints. Reduce...

Enteric redmouth disease (ERM), caused by Yersinia ruckeri, is among the most important infectious diseases in rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss aquaculture in Europe. Our aim was to analyse the persistence of Y. ruckeri strains in trout farms in northwest Germany and their dissemination between farms based on a detailed molecular and phenotypical characterisation scheme. The data on identifica...

We studied the ecological effects of mining-derived metals on riffle-dwelling benthic fishes at 16 sites in the Viburnum Trend lead-zinc mining district of southeast Missouri. Fish community attributes were compared to watershed features and to physical and chemical variables including metal concentrations in sediment pore water and fish. Ozark sculpin (Cottus hypselurus), rainbow darter (Etheo...

The aim of the present study was to compare the nutritive value of bacterial single-cell protein (BSCP) with that of fishmeal in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum)). Four diets were formulated to contain a total of 458 g crude protein/kg of which 0% was from BSCP in diet 1 (BSCP-0), 25% in diet 2 (BSCP-25), 62.5% in diet 3 (BSCP-62.5) and 100% in diet 4 (BSCP-100); the remainder of th...

In this work, we tried to optimize y-treatment of sperm to obtain large numbers of haploid gynogenetic embryos after fertilization. The analysis of increasing doses showed a typical « Hertwig effect)) in all cases, but we found wide between-male variations in the most efficient dose. This variability was reduced by mixing several irradiated samples collected from different males or given differ...

An outbreak of listeriosis in Sweden, consisting of nine cases, was investigated by means of molecular typing of strains from patients and strains isolated from suspected foodstuffs, together with interviews of the patients. Listeria monocytogenes was isolated from six of the patients, and all isolates were of the same clonal type. This clonal type was also isolated from a "gravad" rainbow trou...

Article history: Reducing dietary protein Received 8 September 2008 Received in revised form 16 October 2008 Accepted 17 October 2008