Long-term effects of maternal cortisol exposure and mild hyperthermia during embryogeny on survival, growth and morphological anomalies in farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar offspring

With the objective of elucidating potential effects of prenatal stress on ontogeny of the progeny, a long-term experiment was designed where mature farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar females were cortisol-administered 6 days prior to stripping and additionally, fertilized eggs were exposed to mild hyperthermia during incubation. This study is a supplement to a previous paper and demonstrates that maternal cortisol increment caused several durable impacts on offspring survival, growth and morphological abnormalities, and that the most distinct effects were observed in offspring exposed to both augmented prenatal cortisol levels and a subsequent episode of early thermal stress. Moreover, offspring displaying anomalous morphology had reduced fork length and body mass compared to their normal counterparts.