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Welfare in farmed fish got particular attention during the last decades from both governmental and public sides. In aquaculture context, welfare concerns are mainly related to handling procedures, water quality and stoking densities. In Europe, authorities had to clarify the threshold limits of stocking densities to maintain fish good welfare, including for organics aquaculture through the EC regulation 710/2009. However, effects of stocking density on fish welfare are complex and sometimes contradictory. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge about the impact of density on fish welfare in organic aquaculture. Thus, the aim of the study is to asses welfare state of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) at two initial stocking densities (low density, LD: 12 kg/m3 and high density, HD: 17 kg/m3) fed using organic feed by combining the monitoring of growth performances, behaviour (swimming activity) and physiological indicators (i.e. cortisol, glucose, lactate, hematocrit, red blood cellule count and lysozyme). At the end of experiment, the stocking density reached 21 kg/m3 and 30 kg/m3 for the LD and HD respectively. Overall, growth performances, swimming activity and level of physiological indicators of stress and welfare were similar between HD and LD over the experiment duration. To conclude, we observed no alteration of fish welfare between the two stocking densities monitored. This study suggests that a final stocking density of 30 kg/m3 can be considered for organic aquaculture of rainbow trout respecting welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Assessment of the energetic costs of different living activities is of primary interest among fish biologists. However, assessing energy expenditure in free-swimming fish is challenging owing to the difficulty of performing such measurements in the field. Therefore, the use of implant fish with sensors that transmit signals that serve as a proxy for energy expenditure is a promising method to counter these limitations, allowing remote monitoring in tagged fish. The aim of this study was to correlate the acceleration recorded by the tag with the activities of the red and white muscles and the oxygen consumption rate (MO2), which could serve as a proxy for energy expenditure, in gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata), a key species in European marine aquaculture. The acceleration recorded by the tag was successfully correlated with MO2. Additionally, through electromyographic analyses, we determined the activities of the red and white muscles, which are indicative of the contributions of aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms during swimming. Finally, the tag implantation did not affect the swimming performance, metabolic traits, and swimming efficiency of the sea bream. By obtaining insights into both aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms, sensor mapping with physiological indicators may be useful for the purposes of aquaculture health/welfare remote monitoring of gilthead sea bream. Measurement of metabolic rates provides a valuable proxy for the energetic costs of different living activities. However, such measurements are not easy to perform in free-swimming fish. Therefore, mapping acceleration from accelerometer tags with oxygen consumption rates (MO2) is a promising method to counter these limitations and could represent a tool for remotely estimating MO2 in aquaculture environments. In this study, we monitored the swimming performance and MO2 of 79 gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata; weight range, 219–971 g) during a critical swimming test. Among all the fish challenged, 27 were implanted with electromyography (EMG) electrodes, and 27 were implanted with accelerometer tags to monitor the activation pattern of the red/white muscles during swimming. Additionally, we correlated the acceleration recorded by the tag with the MO2. Overall, we found no significant differences in swimming performance, metabolic traits, and swimming efficiency between the tagged and untagged fish. The acceleration recorded by the tag was successfully correlated with MO2. Additionally, through EMG analyses, we determined the activities of the red and white muscles, which are indicative of the contributions of aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms until reaching critical swimming speed. By obtaining insights into both aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms, sensor mapping with physiological data may be useful for the purposes of aquaculture health/welfare remote monitoring of the gilthead sea bream, a key species in European marine aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Measuring metabolic rates in free-swimming fish would provide valuable insights about the energetic costs of different life activities this is challenging to implement in the field due to the difficulty of performing such measurements. Thus, the calibration of acoustic transmitters with the oxygen consumption rate (MO2) could be promising to counter the limitations observed in the field. In this study, calibrations were performed in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and a subsample of fish was implanted with such a transmitter and then followed under aquaculture conditions. The use of acoustic transmitters calibrated with MO2 appeared to be a promising tool to estimate energetic costs in free-swimming rainbow trout, and for welfare assessment in the aquaculture industry. Metabolic rates are linked to the energetic costs of different activities of an animal's life. However, measuring the metabolic rate in free-swimming fish remains challenging due to the lack of possibilities to perform these direct measurements in the field. Thus, the calibration of acoustic transmitters with the oxygen consumption rate (MO2) could be promising to counter these limitations. In this study, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum, 1792; n = 40) were challenged in a critical swimming test (Ucrit) to (1) obtain insights about the aerobic and anaerobic metabolism throughout electromyograms; and (2) calibrate acoustic transmitters' signal with the MO2 to be later used as a proxy of energetic costs. After this calibration, the fish (n = 12) were implanted with the transmitter and were followed during ~50 days in an aquaculture facility, as a case study, to evaluate the potential of such calibration. Accelerometer data gathered from tags over a long time period were converted to estimate the MO2. The MO2 values indicated that all fish were reared under conditions that did not impact their health and welfare. In addition, a diurnal pattern with higher MO2 was observed for the majority of implanted trout. In conclusion, this study provides (1) biological information about the muscular activation pattern of both red and white muscle; and (2) useful tools to estimate the energetic costs in free-ranging rainbow trout. The use of acoustic transmitters calibrated with MO2, as a proxy of energy expenditure, could be promising for welfare assessment in the aquaculture industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Trout of different personality/competitive ability were exposed to aquaculture stressors (hypoxia and high ammonia). • Hypoxia resulted overall in reduced swimming activity, but induced no physiological stress. • High levels of ammonia were stressful, and induced an increase of avoidance behavior. • Personality-related behavioral differences were evident upon stress (high ammonia). • The data support the use of wireless accelerometer sensors as a promising tool for welfare monitoring in aquaculture. As other vertebrates, fish differ on an individual basis in their responses to disturbance (i.e. stress) and in their capacity for adaptation to environmental change. This individual stress-coping style (SCS) might have an impact on the individual welfare in aquaculture facilities. However, most of the studies about the behavioral and physiological stress responses of fish with different SCS were performed under conditions very unlike usual rearing conditions. Therefore, we aimed in the current study at investigating the behavioral and physiological responses of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) of different SCS to common aquaculture stressors (exposure to hypoxia or high ammonia) under realistic conditions. We first screened the fish according to their competitive ability, as a proxy of SCS, separating the best and worst competitors (winners, W, and losers, L, respectively). Then, we evaluated the behavioral (using both telemetric and video-monitoring approaches) and physiological response of both groups upon exposure to increasing levels of hypoxia and ammonia. Overall, increasing hypoxia induced a slight but progressive decrease in fish activity, independently of the fish SCS. High concentrations of total ammonia induced an increase of certain behavioral displays, such as swimming bursts or approaches to the surface, the latter being overall more frequent in W than in L fish. At the specific stress levels tested (hypoxia: 50 % oxygen saturation; total ammonia: 2.91 mM), the physiological stress markers showed that the behavioral response to ammonia was probably driven by stress, while the behavioral response of the fish to hypoxia was just a behavioral adjustment to accommodate the decrease in oxygen availability. In conclusion, our data show that fish of different competitive ability showed similar activity patterns in routine conditions or when adapting to non-stressful conditions (50 % oxygen saturation) in an aquaculture-like setup, but differed in their behavioral response when exposed to stress (high water ammonia). In addition, our data support the use of acoustic accelerometer transmitters as a promising tool for real-time monitoring of fish welfare in commercial fish farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]