Our study is the first to examine the effects of an environmentally
relevant mixture of dietary PBDEs on an anadromous
salmonid species and the impacts associated with susceptibility to
infectious diseases in this species. Our experiment provided evidence
of potential PBDE toxicity on the immune system, but we
found dichotomy in the results. That is, the subyearling Chinook
fed the 1× PBDE diet showed significantly greater disease-induced
mortality when challenged with a pathogen than control fish. In
contrast, the subyearling Chinook fed the 10× PBDE diet were
not more susceptible to disease than the fish fed the control
diet.