Relationship between gut microbiota and Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) health and growth performance in freshwater recirculating aquaculture systems

• Published in: Frontiers in microbiology Vol. 14; p. 1065823
• Main Authors: Zhao, Ruixiang, Symonds, Jane E, Walker, Seumas P, Steiner, Konstanze, Carter, Chris G, Bowman, John P, Nowak, Barbara F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 07-02-2023
• Subjects: Chinook salmon; growth performance; gut microbiota; Microbiology; recirculating aquaculture system; swim bladder; growth performance; recirculating aquaculture system; swim bladder; Chinook salmon; gut microbiota
• ISSN: 1664-302X; 1664-302X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1065823

Gut microbiota play important roles in fish health and growth performance and the microbiome in fish has been shown to be a biomarker for stress. In this study, we surveyed the change of Chinook salmon (
) gut and water microbiota in freshwater recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for 7 months and evaluated how gut microbial communities were influenced by fish health and growth performance. The gut microbial diversity significantly increased in parallel with the growth of the fish. The dominant gut microbiota shifted from a predominance of
to
while
constantly dominated the water microbiota.
sp. was persistently the major gut microbial community member during the whole experiment and was identified as the core gut microbiota for freshwater farmed Chinook salmon. No significant variation in gut microbial diversity and composition was observed among fish with different growth performance. At the end of the trial, 36 out of 78 fish had fluid in their swim bladders. These fish had gut microbiomes containing elevated proportions of
,
and
. Our study supports the growing body of knowledge about the beneficial microbiota associated with modern salmon aquaculture systems and provides additional information on possible links between dysbiosis and gut microbiota for Chinook salmon.