Victoria Vincent
Vicki Milano
Eric R. Fetherman
Dana L. Winkelman
Tawni B. Riepe
2021
<p><span>Efforts to advance fish health diagnostics have been highlighted in many studies to improve the detection of pathogens in aquaculture facilities and wild fish populations. Typically, the detection of a pathogen has required sacrificing fish; however, many hatcheries have valuable and sometimes irreplaceable broodstocks, and lethal sampling is undesirable. Therefore, the development of non-lethal detection methods is a high priority. The goal of our study was to compare non-lethal sampling methods with standardized lethal kidney tissue sampling that is used to detect </span><i><span class="html-italic">Renibacterium salmoninarum</span></i><span> infections in salmonids. We collected anal, buccal, and mucus swabs (non-lethal qPCR) and kidney tissue samples (lethal DFAT) from 72 adult brook trout (</span><i><span class="html-italic">Salvelinus fontinalis</span></i><span>) reared at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Pitkin Brood Unit and tested each sample to assess </span><i><span class="html-italic">R. salmoninarum</span></i><span> infections. Standard kidney tissue detected </span><i><span class="html-italic">R. salmoninarum</span></i><span> 1.59 times more often than mucus swabs, compared to 10.43 and 13.16 times more often than buccal or anal swabs, respectively, indicating mucus swabs were the most effective and may be a useful non-lethal method. Our study highlights the potential of non-lethal mucus swabs to sample for </span><i><span class="html-italic">R. salmoninarum</span></i><span> and suggests future studies are needed to refine this technique for use in aquaculture facilities and wild populations of inland salmonids.</span></p>
application/pdf
10.3390/pathogens10040460
en
MDPI
Evidence for the use of mucus swabs to detect Renibacterium salmoninarum in brook trout
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