Acronym MikroRAS
Category
Aquaculture
Title Microbiota associated with Atlantic salmon in the transition from freshwater to seawater in the RAS: Effect of high/low particle load and consequences for fish welfare and health 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 Ole-Kristian Hess-Erga Coordinator email ole-kristian.hess-erga@niva.no
Coordinator institution
NIVA - Norwegian Institute for Water Research (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA - Cermaq Norway AS (Norway) ,
NA - Lerøy MIDT AS (Norway) ,
NA - Marineholmen RASLab AS (Norway) ,
NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway) ,
UiB - University of Bergen (Norway) ,
Start year 2021 End year 2025 Funding (€) € 865,720 Website https://www.fhf.no/prosjekter/prosjektbasen/901735/ Summary The use of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for the production of fish is increasing in Norway and globally. In line with development, the salmon industry has largely replaced traditional flow-through facilities with RAS, both for the production of hatchery fish and food fish on land. With water recycling, water purification is necessary to remove waste products such as organic material from feed and faeces, ammonium and CO2. Toxic ammonium is converted to nitrate with the help of nitrifying bacteria in biofilters. These are part of complex biofilm communities that are affected by the operation of the RAS plant. For example, increased organic load can cause challenges related to the growth of heterotrophic bacteria in the biofilm. In addition, there are microbiomes dissolved in the water and in biofilm on vessel and pipe walls, as well as in the mucous membranes of the fish. The microbiomes are shaped by the physical and chemical environment, but at the same time affect the chemical water quality and the health of the fish. A RAS plant can therefore be considered a complex microbial ecosystem, but how these microbiomes interact with each other is poorly understood. Increased understanding of the connection between water quality, the salmon's microbiome and its welfare/health in smolt/large smolt-RAS and subsequent growth, could lead to optimized operating conditions and thus significant cost savings in the form of better production, lower mortality, and less disease for individual breeders and for the industry as a whole, and to a significant extent contribute to the development of RAS as a sustainable form of production.
Main objective:
To obtain increased knowledge about the connection between microbiomes in salmon and the production environment, fish health, biofilter function and water quality through smoltification and the post-smolt phase at different particle loads in RAS, as well as effects from transfer to sea, and use this knowledge to optimize operation of RAS in these phases .
Sub-goals:
1. To characterize the effect of smoltification and increasing salinity on the salmon's faeces, skin and gill microbiomes at high and low particle load.
2. To characterize how particle load in the RAS before, during and after smoltification affects the salmon's microbiomes, mucosal health, welfare and performance also after the first time in the sea.
3. To characterize the effect of particle loading and changed salinity; before, during and after smoltification on physiochemical and microbiological water quality, nitrification and biofilm- and particle-associated microbiota.
4. To integrate the results from sub-objectives 1–3 in order to be able to illustrate connections and give advice on how the knowledge can contribute to the production of a more robust fish that performs better in the marine phase.
Keywords
Bacteria;
Fish biology;
Animal welfare;
Recirculating systems;
Fish;
Land-based aquaculture;
Biofilm;
Water quality;
Salmon;
Microbiome;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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