Acronym Optismolt
Category
Aquaculture
Title Optimum smolt production for a robust fish in the sea 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 Marit Stormoen Coordinator email marit.stormoen@nmbu.no
Coordinator institution
NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA - Aqua Competence AS (Norway) ,
NA - PHARMAQ Analytiq AS
(Norway) ,
Start year 2022 End year 2026 Funding (€) € 3,109,000 Website https://www.fhf.no/prosjekter/prosjektbasen/901793/ Summary Effective salmon farming must ensure a robust fish that is able to adapt to seawater as a smolt, and has fast and good growth until slaughter. Unfortunately, there is still too high a mortality rate in salmon both in the hatchery phase, during the transition to the sea and until slaughter. Collected data shows that there is great variation between cages within facilities, between facilities in the same area and between areas both in the total number of deaths and causes of mortality. The great variation also means that there is great potential for improvement.
Optismolt will work at the core of knowledge about the physiological and immunological changes that occur in the fish during smoltification, and compare these to production data in order to be able to give breeders concrete recommendations for using the input factors light management, temperature and seawater addition (ions) to produce a robust smolt that handles life in the sea.
Main goal:
To generate new knowledge about the importance of the input factors photoperiod/light management, temperature and the ion composition of the water during different production forms in the hatchery phase for health, welfare and performance in the marine phase and up to slaughter, and based on this to recommend best practice.
Sub-goals
1. To investigate how the winter signal affects smoltification, immune competence and further performance at sea.
2. To test the effect of lowering the temperature in the RAS on smoltification and performance at sea.
3. To assess the consequence of gradual seawater adaptation on smoltification and further performance at sea.
4. To assess the importance of gill health, heart health and nephrocalcinosis in the hatchery phase for performance in the marine phase, including wound challenges and gill status.
Keywords
Salmon;
Animal welfare;
Fish;
Fish health;
Water quality;
Land-based aquaculture;
Recirculating systems;
Marine Region
41
Norwegian Sea (27.IIa)
1
Marine Region Map
