The specific antibody response of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus to route of antigen administration and change in environmental conditions

The specific antibody response of olive flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus to change in rearing-environmental conditions post immunization with antigen (bovine serum albumin, BSA) and different routes of antigen administration were investigated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). To test the effect of routes of antigen administration, flounder were injected intraperioneally or intramuscularlly with 1 mg of BSA. In addition, to test the effect of change in environmental condition post immunization, flounder were injected intraperioneally with 1 mg of antigen, and then were exposed to acute thermal change (the water temperature (WT) was decreased from 21 ℃ to 15℃ within 30 min and maintained at 15℃ for 3 h), handling (fish were caught and subsequently held out of water for 1 min) or heavy oil (76 g/ 200 L for 2 days). Consequently, there was no significant difference between intraperioneal (IP) and intramuscular (IM) injections except at 10 days post-immunization. With these results, it suggests that both IM and IP injections may be used as route of vaccination. Futhermore, no significant difference was observed in the antibody response among the groups exposed to heavy oil, handling, sudden drop of WT and positive control except at 10 days post-immunization. From these results, it was confirmed that specific antibody response was not affected by the above mentioned rearing-environmental conditions, suggesting that vaccination can be employed at changing rearing-environmental conditions.