Efficacy testing of produced freshwater through desalination for treating sealice and AGD in salmon

The use of freshwater is common for treating Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD) and, nowadays, sealice infestations. The operational cost of freshwater bathing can be high and alternatives using desaliniation to produce "freshwater" is possible. This project investigates the efficacy of treating Fish affected by AGD and sealice with reverse osmosis water (produced pure freshwater), but also testing teh efficacy of produced "freshwater" with different ions selectively removed. It is known that soft freshwater is more effective than hard freshwater for treatign AGD, and this study will investigate whether the elective removal of ions from brackish water can be as effective at removing gill amoebae and sealice as freshwater alone. Experimentally infected salmon smolts will be bathed in seawater (Control) or produced freshwater for commercially relevant durations to mimic a Commercial freshwater bath. The subsequent efficacy of that treatment will then be assessed using histology and PCR (AGD) and by visual lice Counts (sealice)..