The 10th International Symposium on Sturgeon (ISS10)

When artificially farmed sturgeons were directly released into the natural habitats, they would exhibit stress response, which would display negative impacts on the survival rate of wild population. It indicated that wilderness training was necessary before formal artificial stock enhancement. In this study, three breeding modes were set: Group A (non-feeding group), Group B (commercial feed group), and Group C (Tubifex-feeding group). All sturgeons in these three groups were reared in the wild environment. On the 14^th day, 15 individuals were randomly selected from each group, and the intestinal tissues and contents were collected for subsequent analysis. Hematoxylin-eosin staining showed that the intestinal villus height in the Group C was significantly higher than that in Group A and Group B. In addition, 16S rDNA sequencing technology was used to detect the diversity and community composition of intestinal microorganisms in sturgeon. α-diversity and β-diversity analysis showed that there was no significant difference between Group A and B while Group C showed obvious differences compared with Group A and B. Specifically, in the phylum level, the phyla Bacteroidota, Actinobacteriota, and Fusobacteriota in Group C showed higher relative abundance than another two groups. Meanwhile, in the genus level, Bacteroides, Yersinia, and Hafnia−Obesumbacterium in Group C also exhibit greater abundance than these in another two groups.This study confirmed that feeding with Tubifex during wilderness training could effectively improve the intestinal health of sturgeons, which had important practice significance for enhancing the beneficial effects of artificial re-stocking and promoting the recovery of wild sturgeon population. Our investigation not only provided the scientific basis for sturgeon species protection but also established solid foundation for the development of stock enhancement strategy, which would benefit for the sustainable recovery of wild sturgeon populations.