Genetic variation in survival of chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) alevins exposed to an unidentified agent of mortality

Abstract

Mortality of an unknown etiology occurs after hatching and before emergence among Harrison River chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) alevins incubated in the Chehalis River Hatchery, British Columbia. Inter- and intra-stock genetic variation for alevin survival and time to death was investigated at Chehalis Hatchery in factorial crosses among chinook salmon from the Harrison and Capilano rivers. Alevin survival by family ranged from 0 to 100%, with a mean value of 35.2%. The mean family survival of pure Harrison alevins (13.0%) was significantly lower than that of Capilano alevins (64.1%). For the Harrison stock, estimates of the heritability of survival were 1.05 ± 0.62 (sire component) and 0.03 ± 0.07 (dam component). For the Capilano stock, the corresponding estimates were 0.79 ± 0.53 and 0.80 ± 0.54. Family means of time to death ranged from 7.5 to 48 days after exposure to mortality-inducing agents. The mean times to death for pure Harrison (15.3 days) and Capilano (21.8 days) families were not significantly different. Sire and dam component heritability estimates for time to death were high for the Harrison stock (1.39 ± 0.87 and 0.71 ± 0.46) but low for the Capilano stock (0.06 ± 0.11 and 0.17 ± 0.18). Values of survival and time to death for the reciprocal interstock hybrid alevins generally fell between those of the parental stocks. Neither survival nor time to death differed significantly between the reciprocal hybrids, but both traits were more strongly influenced by sire than by dam. The possibility of asynchronous paternal and maternal allele activation during embryonic development was proposed as an explanation for the strong paternal effects observed in this study. Key words: Oncorhynchus, salmon, heritability, mortality.