Cultivation of salmon lice
Cultivation of salmon lice has already been established and will be an on-going activity for harvesting both eggstrings and mobile salmon lice for use in in vitro assays.
Fish will be kept and infested with copepodid salmon lice. Eggstrings will be sampled from adult salmon lice to produce copepodids for re-infestations and production of pre-adult salmon lice. While attaching and feeding on the fish, the salmon lice will punctuate the skin and may enable secondary infections from other agens. This might cause some stress for the fish.
Infestations of farmed salmonids by caligid sea lice cause significant economic losses to the global salmon farming industry. A first step in identifying efficacious solutions towards salmon lice is to test in in vitro bioassays.
A minimum of 20 fish (Atlantic salmon) à 4 tanks (tot. 80 fish) are kept continuously for cultivating 3-4 strains of salmon lice. A use of approximately 700 fish in total is hereby applied for, although we will strive for use of fewer fish during the application period.
To minimalize stress during handling and prevent ulcers, a new filtration system and UV-treatment of water in new tanks have been installed locally in the room. In addition, several measurements and precautions such as vaccination, minimalizing number of fish and alternative netting (described later) have been implemented.
Fish will be kept and infested with copepodid salmon lice. Eggstrings will be sampled from adult salmon lice to produce copepodids for re-infestations and production of pre-adult salmon lice. While attaching and feeding on the fish, the salmon lice will punctuate the skin and may enable secondary infections from other agens. This might cause some stress for the fish.
Infestations of farmed salmonids by caligid sea lice cause significant economic losses to the global salmon farming industry. A first step in identifying efficacious solutions towards salmon lice is to test in in vitro bioassays.
A minimum of 20 fish (Atlantic salmon) à 4 tanks (tot. 80 fish) are kept continuously for cultivating 3-4 strains of salmon lice. A use of approximately 700 fish in total is hereby applied for, although we will strive for use of fewer fish during the application period.
To minimalize stress during handling and prevent ulcers, a new filtration system and UV-treatment of water in new tanks have been installed locally in the room. In addition, several measurements and precautions such as vaccination, minimalizing number of fish and alternative netting (described later) have been implemented.