Exploratory Factor Analysis of Rainbow Trout Serum Chemistry Variables

Clinical chemistry offers a valuable, affordable, moderately invasive, and nondisruptive way to assess animal physiological status and wellness within defined ranges and is widely used as a diagnostic clinical tool. Because of physiological differences between mammals, clinical correlates of blood chemistry variables are not known in detail in fish, in which tissue/organ function tests are inferred from mammal-derived clinical chemistry data. The aim of the present study was to apply exploratory factor analysis on a serum chemistry dataset from clinically healthy, reared rainbow trout Oncorhynchusmykiss (Walbaum, 1792) to select the most correlated variables and to test for possible underlying factors explaining the observed correlations as possible physiological status estimates in trout. The obtained factors were tested for correlation with hepatosomatic and splenosomatic indexes. Thirteen highly correlated variables were selected out of 18 original serum chemistry variables, and three underlying factors (Factors 1, 2, and 3) were identified that explained the observed correlations among variables. Moreover, Factor 1 correlated negatively with the hepatosomatic index and Factors 2 and 3 negatively with the splenosomatic index. The obtained factors were tentatively associated with: protein (liver) metabolism (Factor 1), cell turnover (Factor 2), and lipid (muscle) metabolism (Factor 3).