In addition to being the main metabolic organ, the liver also plays a fundamental role during the so-called acute phase of the immune response, a process that is rapidly activated following an infection and that is crucial for the regulation of the inflammatory response (45).The expression of the gene encoding the acute phase protein Gdf15, a hepatic pleiotropic cytokine considered a marker of sepsis severity both in mammals (46) and in fish (47), was higher in the livers of the susceptible family after infection. The gene discussed is GDF15; the disease is infection.