Comparison of bacterial diversity and distribution on the gills of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.): an evaluation of sampling techniques.

The external mucosal barriers of teleost fish (e.g. gill surface) play a vital role as a primary defence line against infection. While research effort on the role of microbial communities on health and immunity of aquaculture species continues, the collection and sampling processes to obtain these data require evaluation so methodologies are consistently applied across future studies that aim to evaluate the composition of branchial microbiomes.