Heritability and stimulation of lice eating and refinement of lice eating detection method in lumpfish.
The aim of the experiments is to test the hypothesis: is lice eating ability of lumpfish heritable ? The experiment is also aiming to test a new method for detecting lice eaten by lumpfish and if lice eating can be stimulated by weaning diets.
The experiment will expose the lumpfish to mild short term pain due to gut flushing for estimation of salmon lice eaten.
1560 lumpfish juveniles, app. 20 g, will be used for the experiment.
Number of lumpfish used are based on statistical models for selective breeding in aquaculture (Gjedrem 2005).
If lice eating ability is heritable and/ or can be stimulated by weaning diets the number of lumpfish used as cleaner fish will be reduced. If the new method of detecting salmon lice eaten by lumpfish works it can be a refinement of the gut flushing method.(Imsland et al. 2016)
The experiment will expose the lumpfish to mild short term pain due to gut flushing for estimation of salmon lice eaten.
1560 lumpfish juveniles, app. 20 g, will be used for the experiment.
Number of lumpfish used are based on statistical models for selective breeding in aquaculture (Gjedrem 2005).
If lice eating ability is heritable and/ or can be stimulated by weaning diets the number of lumpfish used as cleaner fish will be reduced. If the new method of detecting salmon lice eaten by lumpfish works it can be a refinement of the gut flushing method.(Imsland et al. 2016)