Acronym Eating Louse
Category
Aquaculture
Title Can we make the cleaner fish a more efficient lice eater? Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Ingrid Lein Coordinator email ingrid.lein@nofima.no
Coordinator institution
NOFIMA - Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA - MOWI ASA (Norway) ,
NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway) ,
NA - SalMar ASA (Norway) ,
Start year 2022 End year 2025 Funding (€) € 1,061,700 Website https://www.fhf.no/prosjekter/prosjektbasen/901780/ Summary Questions are often asked about both the welfare of cleaning fish in salmon cages, and about how effective they are at grazing salmon lice. It is believed that the cleaner fish must be in good health and in good condition to be able to function well as lice eaters. Welfare and efficiency are therefore linked. There is therefore a need to clarify the conditions that make the cleaner fish an effective lice eater, this can relate to factors such as feed, habituation, environment, stress or genetics.
The project will investigate whether getting used to the taste and smell of salmon lice or other crustaceans can contribute to the roe cracker starting to feed on lice faster, and to each roe cracker eating more lice. It is amino acids that act as attractants, and because salmon lice and roach have a very similar amino acid profile, the project group believes that both can act as attractants. One also believes that hydrolyzate of red mullet is most commercially interesting if it functions as an attractant. This work is based on knowledge from previous projects Nofima has been involved in funded by FHF and Mabit.
Main objective: To document conditions that affect how effective wrasses and roe crackers are as lice eaters.
Sub-goal:
1. To clarify about roe crackers and wrasses that get used to the smell and taste of salmon lice or other crustaceans, such as e.g. ruddy, start grazing lice faster in the cages, and if more individuals eat lice.
2. To clarify whether hiding arrangements affect how effectively cleaning fish feed on lice, and whether visual stimuli are important.
3. To clarify whether supplementation of marine phospholipids in feed for mountain gilts gives a more robust fish with better condition throughout the winter, and whether this contributes to more efficient lice grazing.
Keywords
Fish;
Wrasse;
Salmon;
Parasite;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
Marine Region Map
