Recombinant Chicken and Bovine Growth Hormones Accelerate Growth in Aquacultured Juvenile Pacific Salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch

Injection of recombinant chicken or bovine growth hormone into juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) resulted in significant dose dependent increases in growth rate and also improved feed conversion. Weight gain in fish receiving 5 μg/g/week recombinant chicken or bovine growth hormone intraperitoneally, over a 42 day period, was approximately twice that in untreated or saline injected control fish, while weight gain in fish receiving 1 μg/g/week was less, but still significantly greater than in controls. Specific growth rates ranged from 1.48 to 1.58 percent/day in control groups to 2.36 to 2.38 percent/day in fish treated with 5 μg/g/week recombinant growth hormone. The growth of salmon receiving recombinant growth hormones compared favourably with growth of those receiving similar doses of natural bovine growth hormone.