Effects of functional feeds on the lipid composition, transcriptomic responses and pathology in heart of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) before and after experimental challenge with Piscine…

Laura Martinez-Rubio, Øystein Evensen, Aleksei Krasnov, Sven Martin Jørgensen, Simon Wadsworth, Kari Ruohonen, Jose LG Vecino, Douglas R Tocher

Cardiomyopathy syndrome (CMS) is a severe cardiac disease of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) recently associated with a double-stranded RNA virus, Piscine Myocarditis Virus (PMCV). The disease has been diagnosed in 75-85 farms in Norway each year over the last decade resulting in annual economic losses estimated at up to €9 million. Recently, we demonstrated that functional feeds led to a milder inflammatory response and reduced severity of heart lesions in salmon experimentally infected with Atlantic salmon reovirus, the causal agent of heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI). In the present study we employed a similar strategy to investigate the effects of functional feeds, with reduced lipid content and increased eicosapentaenoic acid levels, in controlling CMS in salmon after experimental infection with PMCV.