Does the level of asepsis impact the success of surgically implanting tags in Atlantic salmon?

It is generally recommended that a high level of asepsis be maintained during surgical implantation of electronic tags into fish. However, documentation of a positive effect of asepsis in fish surgery is lacking. To compare the effects of surgical implantation performed under different sanitary conditions, 100 hatchery salmon smolts (Salmo salar) were surgically implanted with tags with and without trailing antenna and were kept in a hatchery facility. After 34 days, the surviving smolts were euthanized and survival, growth and healing were compared between fish tagged under aseptic conditions and fish tagged without regard to aseptic technique. The results demonstrated that there was no detectable difference in survival, growth and healing between the treatments. Thus, this study could not provide evidence supporting the general recommendation of achieving a high level of asepsis during fish surgery.