Haematological and Immunological Responses in Juvenile Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) After Short-Term Acute Stress

Abstract

Abstract:The physiological effects of acute stress (induced by an intraperitoneal injection) on the haematocrit, haemoglobin, serum cortisol and glucose, haemagglutinins and lysozyme were investigated in juvenile sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax. A total of 40 fish were subjected to an intraperitoneal injection. Eight fish were sampled at 0, 2, 4, 24 and 48 h after acute stress and compared to unstressed fish (controls) sacrificed at the same times. Intraperitoneal injection resulted in significant changes in cortisol and glucose 4 and 2 hours after exposure to stress, respectively, but not in haematocrit and haemoglobin levels. No significant differences between stressed and control fish were recorded for lysozyme content and haemagglutinating activity throughout the experiment. In juvenile sea bass acute stress caused by intraperitoneal injection was mostly associated with the increase in common stress indicators (cortisol and glucose), while no clear response in terms of non-specific immune parameters was evidenced.

Blood chemistry profile as indicator of nutritional status in European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

“…Basal blood glucose levels are known to differ considerably among fish species (Polakof et al 2012). In this study, glycaemia levels 24 h after feeding averaged 130 mg dl -1 , which is within previously reported values for seabass (96-191 mg dl -1 ; Peres et al 1999;Coz-Rakovac et al 2005;Maricchiolo et al 2008;Roque et al 2010;Chatzifotis et al 2011;Enes et al 2011), and decreased circa 4 and 27 %, respectively, during the first and second weeks of fasting. This confirms the capacity of seabass to maintain basal blood glucose levels during short-term starvation periods as previously reported (Perez-Jimenez et al 2007;Caruso et al 2011;Chatzifotis et al 2011).…”

“…Basal plasma protein values averaged 4.9 g dl -1 , which is comparable with basal values found for other fish species (De Pedro et al 2005;Knowles et al 2006; Tavares-Dias and Moraes Marco et al 2011;Coeurdacier et al 2011;Maricchiolo et al 2008;Peres et al 2013). Starvation induced a significant reduction in plasma protein levels, similarly to what was also observed in gilthead seabream .…”

Early life stress and effects at subsequent stages of development in European sea bass (D. labrax)

“…Our data, based on plasma cortisol, clearly verified that sea bass juveniles are very sensitive to common handling practices and that this may be one explanation for the huge variability in basal cortisol concentrations reported for this species up to date (Cerdá-Reverter et al, 1998;d'Orbcastel et al, 2010;Fanouraki et al, 2011;Fatira et al, 2014;Filiciotto et al, 2012;Maricchiolo et al, 2008;Marino et al, 2001;Peruzzi et al, 2005;Planas et al, 1990;Rotllant et al, 2003Rotllant et al, , 2006Vazzana et al, 2002) and emphasizes the need for the development of new handling procedure for sea bass in order to minimize stress during sampling. Furthermore, whether early life stress has an impact also on the sensitivity to stress at subsequent stages of development, as indicated by the differences observed in cortisol concentrations based on early life history in fish caught by common handling practice, remains to be thoroughly investigated.…”

Dietary carbohydrate/lipid ratios affect stress, oxidative status and non-specific immune responses of fingerling blunt snout bream, Megalobrama amblycephala

“…In a successful fish husbandry practice, consideration is generally given to the understanding of fish stress response so as to avoid stress-related problems, thus improving fish quality and optimizing productions [42]. Over the past few decades, the stress response of fish has been extensively investigated.…”

“…Over the past few decades, the stress response of fish has been extensively investigated. However, most research focused mainly on the stressors unrelated to diet manipulation, including capture, handling, crowding, confinement, transporting, hypoxia, infection, vaccination, temperature and chemical exposure, to list a few [42,43]. The correlations between diet composition and fish stress and immune responses have while received little attention [1,3,16,21,22,27].…”