We are excited to share our latest research on how infections impact wild fish! Pathogens - organisms that cause disease - are known to influence the health of individuals and entire wildlife populations. However, studying how they affect individual performance in the wild has been challenging.
Our study focused on migrating brown trout, a species whose journeys are critical for reproduction. Using advanced tracking technology and non-invasive biopsies, we explored how infections influence their activity during spawning migration.

We found that fish with higher levels of infection showed reduced activity, but this didn’t significantly affect their energy use unless they were exerting themselves. This suggests that while pathogens may impact movement, their effect on energy consumption is less pronounced when fish were less active.
This research highlights the power of combining innovative tools like individual tracking with non-lethal testing to understand how diseases impact wild animals in their natural habitats. These insights are especially important as climate change and fish farming increase the prevalence of pathogens in the wild.
You can find the paper here https://doi.org/10.1111/jfd.14045
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