Reproductive Failure of Landlocked Atlantic Salmon from New York's Finger Lakes: Investigations into the Etiology and Epidemiology of the “Cayuga Syndrome”

Abstract

We describe a disease syndrome that afflicts larval, landlocked Atlantic salmon Salmo salar from Cayuga Lake, one of central New York's Finger Lakes . Mortality associated with the "Cayuga syndrome" is 98-100% . Death usually occurs between 650 and 850 centigrade degreedays after fertilization, approximately 2-4 weeks before yolk resorption is complete . Although there is minor temporal variation in the onset of the Cayuga syndrome in progeny from individual females, all sac fry eventually succumb . Incubation of embryos and sac fry under constant, ambient, or reduced temperature regimens slightly alters the degree-day timing of syndrome onset, but does not improve survival . Based on mortality rate, manifestation of the Cayuga syndrome has not changed in the past 10 years, even though incubation waters of varying chemistry and temperature have been used . Mortality of the negative control stocks used for these studies never exceeded 10% from hatching to first feeding . Findings from reciprocal crossbreeding experiments indicate the problem is associated with ova only . A noninfectious etiology is indicated by the lack of consistently identifiable fish pathogens from syndrome-afflicted sac fry and by the failure to

Parental Background Predisposes Baltic Salmon Fry to M74 Syndrome

“…Crossings of wild females with wild males resulted in greater mortalities (median 99%, range 92%-100%) than with farmed males (median 97%, range 48%-100%, Wilcoxon signed rank test p < 0.05). These findings contradict those of [7] concerning M74-like mortality of landlocked Atlantic salmon (Cayuga syndrome) in certain lakes of New York State. The present experiments were performed before the key role of thiamine in the M74 syndrome was known and no thiamine measurements were taken from the eggs or fry.…”

Ecoepidemiology of the effects of pollution on reproduction and survival of early life stages in teleosts

“…1999 ). Similar thiamine responsive early mortality syndromes have been described in Atlantic salmon in the Baltic with M74 ( Börjeson and Norrgren 1997) and Atlantic salmon in the New York Finger Lakes Region (Cayuga Syndrome) ( Fisher et al . 1995 , 1996; Fitzsimons et al .…”

“…The occurrence of EMS in lake trout has been linked with low thiamine levels in eggs, and it can be prevented or reversed by treatment of eggs, fry or adults with thiamine (vitamin B 1 ) ( Fitzsimons 1995a; Fisher et al . 1996 ).…”

Thiaminase activity of gastrointestinal contents of salmon and herring from the Baltic Sea

“…Tel. : +358 2 215 4604; fax: +358 2 215 4748; email: swistbac@abo.fi the presence in the diet of some factors such as thiaminase, reducing the bioavailability of thiamine, either by destroying it or by converting it to an inactive analogue or thiamine antagonist (Fisher et al, 1995b(Fisher et al, , 1996a(Fisher et al, , b, 1998a. Diets containing thiaminase have been shown to cause thiamine deficiency in several mammalian species (Green & Evans, 1940;Harris, 1951;Evans, 1975;Chick et al, 1989) and also in fishes (Saunders & Henderson, 1974;.…”