Vet Med - Czech, 2026, 71(7):271-279 | DOI: 10.17221/93/2025-VETMED

Rearing system type affects baseline and post-vaccination immune gene expression in Atlantic salmon gills during smoltificationOriginal Paper

D Mudronova ORCID..., A Lagesen, E Pilipcinec ORCID..., N Chomova ORCID..., M Ratvaj ORCID...
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Ko¹ice, Ko¹ice, Slovak Republic

Atlantic salmon undergo critical development before sea transfer, and vaccination during this stage is routine to build protective immunity. This study compared immune responses to vaccination in smolt-stage salmon reared in flow-through (FT) versus recirculating (REC) aquaculture systems. Ten clinically healthy fish per facility were collected one week before and two weeks after intraperitoneal vaccination with commercial multivalent vaccines. Using qPCR, we compared immune gene expression in the fish gills. Before the vaccination, REC fish exhibited higher relative expression of genes coding cathelicidin-1 (cath-1), interleukin-1β (il-1β), and tumour necrosis factor-α (tnf-α) than FT fish. Fourteen days after vaccination, REC fish showed increased expression of gene coding defensin (def) and decreased expression of gene for transforming growth factorβ (tgf-β), while in FT fish, vaccination was associated with increased relative gene expression of tnf-α, tgf-β, and il-10. Within REC, cath-1 expression declined postvaccination, concurrent with an increase in il-10, suggesting a possible counter-regulatory response; in FT, the coordinated rise of pro-inflammatory (tnf-α) and anti-inflammatory (tgf-β, il-10) transcripts is consistent with an activation followed by regulatory signalling. These transcriptomic patterns imply that baseline immune gene expression and post-vaccination gill transcriptomic responses differ between rearing water systems used during smoltification in Atlantic salmon.

Keywords: cytokine; vaccination; water system

Received: November 11, 2025; Revised: June 18, 2026; Accepted: June 19, 2026; Prepublished online: July 27, 2026; Published: July 30, 2026  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Mudronova D, Lagesen A, Pilipcinec E, Chomova N, Ratvaj M. Rearing system type affects baseline and post-vaccination immune gene expression in Atlantic salmon gills during smoltification. Veterinární medicína. 2026;71(7):271-279. doi: 10.17221/93/2025-VETMED.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Alvarez CA, Gomez FA, Mercado L, Ramirez R, Marshall SH. Piscirickettsia salmonis imbalances the innate immune response to succeed in a productive infection in a salmonid cell line model. PLoS One. 2016 Oct 10;11(10):e0163943. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    2. Auclert LZ, Chhanda MS, Derome N. Interwoven processes in fish development: Microbial community succession and immune maturation. PeerJ. 2024 Mar 27;12:e17051. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    3. Bridle A, Nosworthy E, Polinski M, Nowak B. Evidence of an antimicrobial-immunomodulatory role of Atlantic salmon cathelicidins during infection with Yersinia ruckeri. PLoS One. 2011;6(8):e23417. Go to original source...
    4. FAO. The state of world fisheries and aquaculture 2022: Towards blue transformation [Internet]. Rome: FAO; 2022 [cited 2025 Sep 23]. Available from: https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/cc0461en.
    5. Gudding R, Van Muiswinkel WB. A history of fish vaccination: Science-based disease prevention in aquaculture. Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2013 Dec;35(6):1683-8. Go to original source...
    6. Harte A, Tian G, Xu Q, Secombes CJ, Wang T. Five subfamilies of β-defensin genes are present in salmonids: Evolutionary insights and expression analysis in Atlantic salmon Salmo salar. Dev Comp Immunol. 2020 Mar;104:103560. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    7. Huo HJ, Chen SN, Li L, Nie P. Functional characterization of IL-10 and its receptor subunits in a perciform fish, the mandarin fish, Siniperca chuatsi. Dev Comp Immunol. 2019 Aug;97:64-75. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    8. Hynes NA, Furnes C, Fredriksen BN, Winther T, Bogwald J, Larsen AN, Dalmo RA. Immune response of Atlantic salmon to recombinant flagellin. Vaccine. 2011 Oct 13;29(44):7678-87. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    9. Kiron V, Sorensen M, Huntley M, Vasanth GK, Gong Y, Dahle D, Palihawadana AM. Defatted biomass of the microalga, Desmodesmus sp., can replace fishmeal in the feeds for Atlantic salmon. Front Mar Sci. 2016 May 17;3:67. Go to original source...
    10. Lillehaug A. Vaccination strategies and procedures. In: Gudding R, Lillehaug A, Evensen O, editors. Fish vaccination. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons; 2014. p. 140-52. Go to original source...
    11. Lovdata. Forskrift om drift av akvakulturanlegg (akvakulturdriftsforskriften) [Regulation on the operation of aquaculture facilities] [Internet]. Oslo: Lovdata; 2008 [cited 2025 Sep 23]. Available from: https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2008-06-17-822. Norwegian.
    12. Lovdata. Forskrift om bruk av dyr i forsok [Regulation on the use of animals in research] [Internet]. Oslo: Lovdata; 2015 [cited 2025 Sep 23]. Available from: https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2015-06-18-761. Norwegian.
    13. Lucas JS, Southgate PC, Tucker CS. Aquaculture, farming aquatic animals and plants. 3rd ed. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons; 2019. 672 p.
    14. Manage PM. Heavy use of antibiotics in aquaculture: Emerging human and animal health problems - A review. Sri Lanka J Aquat Sci. 2018 Mar 1;23(1):13-27. Go to original source...
    15. Mutoloki S, Cooper GA, Marjara IS, Koop BF, Evensen O. High gene expression of inflammatory markers and IL-17A correlates with severity of injection site reactions of Atlantic salmon vaccinated with oil-adjuvanted vaccines. BMC Genomics. 2010 May 27;11:336. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    16. Saraiva M, Vieira P, O'Garra A. Biology and therapeutic potential of interleukin-10. J Exp Med. 2020 Jan 6;217(1):e20190418. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    17. Shabir U, Dar JS, Bhat AH, Ganai BA, Khan IA. Isolation and characterization of β-defensin-like protein 1 from epidermal mucus of fungal infected fish (Cyprinus carpio) and assessment of its antimicrobial potencies. Aquac Rep. 2022 Apr 1;23:101056. Go to original source...
    18. Sneddon LU. Clinical anesthesia and analgesia in fish. J Exot Pet Med. 2012 Jan;21(1):32-43. Go to original source...
    19. Sommerset I, Wiik-Nielsen J, Oliveira VHS, Moldal T, Borno G, Haukaas A, Brun E. Norwegian fish health report 2022 [Internet]. Oslo: Norwegian Veterinary Institute; 2023 [cited 2025 Sep 24]. Available from: https://www.vetinst.no/rapporter-og-publikasjoner/rapporter/2023/norwegian-fish-health-report-2022/_/attachment/inline/d5be0c98-1cd0-461e-a180-294cecdb7e65:db2fe1673f0a2fc2e3bfc7930e950c31c7978d91/Norwegian%20Fish%20Health%20Report%20%202022.pdf.
    20. Sorensen SL, Park Y, Gong Y, Vasanth GK, Dahle D, Korsnes K, Phuong TH, Kiron V, Oyen S, Pittman K, Sorensen M. Nutrient digestibility, growth, mucosal barrier status, and activity of leucocytes from head kidney of Atlantic salmon fed marine- or plant-derived protein and lipid sources. Front Immunol. 2021 Feb 19;11:623726. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    21. Stickney RR, Gatlin DM III. Aquaculture: An introductory text. 4th ed. Wallingford: CAB International; 2022. 347 p. Go to original source...
    22. Vasanth G, Kiron V, Kulkarni A, Dahle D, Lokesh J, Kitani Y. A microbial feed additive abates intestinal inflammation in Atlantic salmon. Front Immunol. 2015 Aug 19;6:409. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    23. Wangkahart E, Jumpalueang S, Ardprachan S, Phudkliang J, Sunthamala P, Pholchamat S, Qi Z. Molecular characterization and expression analysis of novel interleukin-1 family member (nIL-1Fm) gene in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). J Mar Sci Eng. 2022 Sep 8;10(9):1272. Go to original source...
    24. Zhang Q, Geng M, Li K, Gao H, Jiao X, Ai K, Wei X, Yang J. TGF-β1 suppresses the T-cell response in teleost fish by initiating Smad3- and Foxp3-mediated transcriptional networks. J Biol Chem. 2023 Feb;299(2):102843. Go to original source...
    25. Zou J, Secombes CJ. The function of fish cytokines. Biology (Basel). 2016 May 24;5(2):23. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0.), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content