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Anesthetic effects of AQUI-S 20E® (eugenol) on the afferent neural activity of the oyster toadfish (Opsanus tau)

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Abstract

Anesthesia is used to sedate aquatic animals during transportation or to immobilize them for surgery. However, most studies have focused on the behavioral effects of induction and recovery, without addressing the effect of anesthetic on neural activity. This study investigated the neural response of anterior lateral line afferent fibers in the oyster toadfish, Opsanus tau, during exposure to incremental increases of AQUI-S 20E (0.001–0.006%), to determine if eugenol (the active ingredient of AQUI-S 20E) influences neural activity of the fish lateral line system. Ventilation rate significantly decreased following AQUI-S 20E exposure with the surgical plane of anesthesia reached at 0.003%, characterized by shallow ventilation, equilibrium loss, and no response to tactile stimuli. Spontaneous and evoked firing rates of anterior lateral line fibers also significantly decreased following exposure, although the effect was transitory as neural activity recovered in the majority of fibers (70%) within 30 min of anesthetic withdrawal. While AQUI-S 20E proved effective in inducing the surgical plane of anesthesia without compromising survival, it is not recommended for acute neural preparations due to its depression of neural activity. However, the depression of lateral line sensitivity at low concentrations could play a role in reducing the stress response during fish transport.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Marine Resources Center staff at the Marine Biological Laboratory for providing toadfish care. We would also like to thank Lisa Abbo for veterinary advice on the project, and the Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Partnership Program (AADAP) and Bonnie Johnson at the (INAD) for overseeing animal care protocols when using AQUI-S 20E. The project was conducted under study #11-741-19-256.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Mistletoe Postdoctoral Fellowship to RLP, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under grant DGE 1762114 to LSR, and the National Science Foundation Grant IOS 1354745 to AFM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Swenson Science Building, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN, 55812, USA

    Rosalyn Putland & Allen Mensinger

  2. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA

    Rosalyn Putland, Loranzie Rogers, Beth Giuffrida & Allen Mensinger

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA

    Loranzie Rogers

  4. Wareham High School, Wareham, MA, 02571, USA

    Beth Giuffrida

Authors
  1. Rosalyn Putland
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  2. Loranzie Rogers
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  3. Beth Giuffrida
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  4. Allen Mensinger
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Contributions

RLP, LSR, BG, and AFM: conception and design of research; RLP, LSR, and BG: performed experiments; RLP: analyzed data; RLP and LSR: interpreted results; RLP: prepared figures and drafted manuscript; RLP: wrote the first draft; LSR, BG, and AFM: edited, revised, and approved final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rosalyn Putland.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no that they have no competing interests.

Data availability

All data for this study will be made available to the public in the Dryad repository following publication.

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Putland, R., Rogers, L., Giuffrida, B. et al. Anesthetic effects of AQUI-S 20E® (eugenol) on the afferent neural activity of the oyster toadfish (Opsanus tau). Fish Physiol Biochem 46, 2213–2226 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-020-00874-w

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