Detection of European ancestry in escaped farmed Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., in the Magaguadavic River and Chamcook Stream, New Brunswick, Canada

Abstract

The use of European Atlantic salmon strains for commercial culture by the salmon farming industry has never been permitted in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, Canada. Despite this, varying levels of European ancestry were detected in escaped farmed salmon in the Magaguadavic River (in 1999 and 2000) and in Chamcook Stream (in 2003), New Brunswick. Of the 53 escaped farmed salmon smolts from the Magaguadavic River and 17 escaped farmed parr from Chamcook Stream analysed, a single European “type” allele was observed at a single locus in two escaped farmed salmon smolts from the Magaguadavic River and in two escaped farmed parr from the Chamcook Stream. Of the 35 escaped farmed salmon adults analysed, two captured at the Magaguadavic fishway had European “type” microsatellite alleles at multiple loci and one also exhibited European “type” mitochondrial DNA. These results highlight the need for better containment strategies for freshwater hatcheries and genetic screening programmes for farmed salmon broodstock to minimize the likelihood of the introgression of non-local genetic material into severely depressed wild Atlantic salmon populations in the Bay of Fundy region.

Brown Trout-Salmon Hybrids in Bulgarian Rivers are not a Red Herring

“…All captive bred (hatchery) fish samples used here as controls showed allele length within the range previously described for brown trout (119-162 bp) (2,7,8). Samples taken from free-living populations, however, apart from the alleles within this range, produced several unusual alleles, well above the upper limit for brown trout and closer to the allele sizes observed in Atlantic salmon (6,11,12,14). electrophoretic profiles of the amplified Ssa197 fragments from the studied specimens can be seen in figs.…”

“…The region bordered by primer pair is homologous between several different salmonid species, among which are the Atlantic salmon (S. salar), the brown trout (S. trutta fario), the marble trout (S. marmoratus) and others (4,7,14). the distribution of the allele length is characteristic of the different species and has been shown to serve as a marker for origin and/ or species affiliation (2, 13, 14).…”

Half a century of genetic interaction between farmed and wild Atlantic salmon: Status of knowledge and unanswered questions

“…Farmed escapees have been documented in rivers in most regions where there is commercial aquaculture; Norway (Fiske et al., ; Fiske, Lund, Østborg, & Fløystad, ; Gausen & Moen, ; Lund, Okland, & Hansen, ; Okland et al., ), the Finnish region of the River Teno (Tana in Norwegian) that flows out in Norway (Erkinaro et al., ), the UK including Northern Ireland (Butler et al., ; Crozier, ; Milner & Evans, ; Walker et al., ; Webb et al., ), Ireland (Clifford, McGinnity, & Ferguson, ), Atlantic North America (Carr, Anderson et al., ; Lacroix & Stokesbury, ; Morris et al., ; O'Reilly, Carr, Whoriskey, & Verspoor, ; Stokesbury & Lacroix, ; Stokesbury, Lacroix, Price, Knox, & Dadswell, ; Utter & Epifanio, ), Pacific North America (Fisher, Volpe, & Fisher, ; Volpe, Taylor, Rimmer, & Glickman, ), Chile (Sepulveda, Arismendi, Soto, Jara, & Farias, ) and Australia (Abrantes et al., ). In addition, escapees have been reported in oceanic feeding areas (Hansen & Jacobsen, ; Hansen, Reddin, & Lund, ; Jensen et al., ), as well as in rivers far away from major farming regions (Gudjonsson, ; Piccolo & Orlikowska, ).…”

One Fish, Two Fish, Old Fish, New Fish—Is the Biodiversity of Bulgarian Native Brown Trout (S. Trutta Fario) Populations at Risk?

“…the decreased allele diversity in hatchery populations compared to free-living populations was also reflected in the decreased variance of the allele size within the limits usually typical of brown trout. For markers Ssa197 and Ssa85, which are common among several salmonid species but discriminative in regard to species assignment, a wider allele range was observed, extending into the range described elsewhere as typical of Atlantic salmon (11,29,30).…”