Immune responses of resistant and sensitive common carp families following experimental challenge with Aeromonas hydrophila
Introduction
Motile Aeromonad Septicaemia (MAS) caused by the bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila is a worldwide problem for fish farmers [1]. This bacterium is a part of the normal intestinal bacterial flora of the fish and is able to cause disease by the effect of stress [2]. Septicaemia can spread among cultured fish very quickly resulting in high mortality rates [3]. A. hydrophila is extremely heterogeneous and there is currently no commercially available vaccine that is effective against all A. hydrophila strains [4]. Antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents are often used to prevent or treat fish diseases of bacterial origin, but they can accumulate in the fish meat and in the aquatic environment, and there is an increasing risk of developing antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.
Development of fish strains that are resistant to the disease is an alternative way of prevention, by breeding strains selectively for increased disease resistance. There are promising results of increasing disease resistance by selective breeding of some economically important fish species, such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), rainbow trout (Onchorhyncus mykiss), Atlantic cod (Gadus morrhua), rohu carp (Labeo rohita) or common carp (Cyprinus carpio) [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11]. However, knowledge about the immunological traits that can correlate with disease resistance and can be used as potential indirect markers for selection is limited. In previous studies, investigations on potential correlations between survival or resistance to various pathogens and innate (non-specific) immune response, e.g. phagocytic and respiratory burst activity of phagocytic cells [12], [13], [14], plasma lysozyme activity [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], serum haemolysin titre [17], [18], level of natural antibodies [19], [20], spontaneous haemolytic activity of serum [21] and proliferation of leukocytes in lymphoid tissues [22] were done. There are contradictions among results of these studies, as these traits showed a positive or negative correlation with disease resistance or no correlation. It was found that fish with various genetic backgrounds also showed various specific immune responses (level of specific antibodies) however, it did not always correlate with resistance against specific pathogens [16], [23], [24], [25].
The aim of our study was to investigate the non-specific and specific immune response of genetically different common carp families after an experimental challenge with A. hydrophila. Ten resistant and ten sensitive families were used for the experiment. These were selected out of 96 families, based on the survival data of a previous challenge test. Blood samples were taken from the fish 12 h, one week and 21 days after the challenge. Non-challenged fish from the same families were used as controls. Phagocytic and respiratory burst activities of phagocytic cells and plasma lysozyme activity were determined from these samples. The level of specific antibodies against A. hydrophila and level of natural antibodies were measured from the samples taken on the 28th day. Experimental data of challenged and non-challenged resistant and sensitive families were evaluated and compared to each other.
Section snippets
Establishing families
Carp used for this experiment originated from 96 families established and reared in the Research Institute for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Irrigation (HAKI, Szarvas, Hungary) for a research project on carp genetics, aiming the selection of families with good growth performance and resistance against A. hydrophila and koi herpes virus (KHV). Briefly, four common carp strains were selected for crossings from the live gene bank of HAKI: Szarvas 15 (15) mirror carp, an inbred line used as a parental
Phagocytic activity
Twelve hours following the infection, phagocytic activity of isolated leukocytes was significantly lower in the two challenged groups than in the relevant control groups (Fig. 1). However, one week after the infection, phagocytic activity increased significantly in the challenged groups compared to the relevant controls, and the enhanced phagocytic activity remained until the 21st day of the experiment. In addition, a significant difference was measured between the “challenged H” and
Discussion
The aim of this work was to investigate the non-specific and specific immune parameters in 20 genetically different common carp families, following a challenge with A. hydrophila. Ten resistant and ten sensitive families were used for this experiment, and the phagocytosis, lysozyme activity and specific antibody level against A. hydrophila were significantly higher in the challenged resistant families than in the sensitive ones. In respiratory burst activity and natural antibody level, no
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the European Commission 6th Framework Programme (EUROCARP, Project 0022665).
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