Depth distribution of the amoebic gill disease agent, Neoparamoeba perurans, in salmon sea-cages

Identifying where and when parasites occur in farming environments is vital to understand transmission dynamics and develop preventative measures that reduce hostparasite encounters. A major parasite concern for Atlantic salmon farming is Neoparamoeba perurans, a marine amoeba that causes the potentially fatal amoebic gill disease (AGD), for which few control options exist. We explored whether free-living N. perurans abundance differs among depths in commercial Atlantic salmon Salmo salar sea-cages. Water samples collected from the surface to 10 m depth at multiple cage sites and times, and subsequently subjected to qPCR analysis, revealed that N. perurans abundance was influenced by depth at the time of year when amoeba numbers were highest, with more amoebae in surface waters. No distinct depth patterns were observed when amoebae were in low abundance. Across all times, temperature and salinity were largely homogeneous throughout cage depths. Possible factors explaining the presence of amoe- bae at the surface are discussed. Our results suggest that excluding caged salmon from upper cage depths where N. perurans is more abundant could be an effective management strategy to reduce the speed at which initial infections occur and delay the development of AGD outbreaks.

• Publication year

  2015

• Venue

  Aquaculture Environment Interactions

• Publication date

  2015-07-16

• Fields of study

  Biology, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3354/AEI00137
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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