Two pathogens associated with salmon health and survival in British Columbia

Many wild salmon populations in British Columbia (British Columbia) have declined significantly over the past three decades. A new UBC study is published in FACES helps chart a course for better wild salmon protection.

A study conducted by UBC lecturer Arthur Bass, a member of forestry, and using data from the Strategic Initiative on Salmon Health, estimated dozens of pathogens in thousands of salmon chub and coho, which took ten years along the coast of the coast.

For the first time, researchers have been able to identify the pathogens most closely linked to the survival of Pacific salmon in the ocean: Tenacibaculum maritimum, a bacterium that causes peptic ulcer disease in salmon and other crops. sea ​​fish all over the world; and fish orthoreovirus (PRV), a virus that causes Pacific and Atlantic salmon worldwide, but whose impact on salmon in the British era is vigorously debated.

“This is the first empirical evidence that PRV is negatively affecting wild Pacific salmon in the British era,” says Dr. Bass, a doctoral student at UBC’s Pacific Salmon Ecology Laboratory. “These two pathogens are common on salmon farms in the British era, and recent studies show evidence of transmission from farms to wild salmon.”

“Numerous studies show that high ocean temperatures affect salmon survival, but this new study shows that in some cases the presence of pathogens may be more important,” said lead author Christine Miller-Saunders, a molecular genetics scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. (DFO). ) and an adjunct professor of fisheries at UBC.