Acronym ModuLus
Category
Aquaculture
Title Interaction between salmon lice and salmon 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 Aina-Cathrine Øvergård Coordinator email Aina-Cathrine.Overgard@uib.no
Coordinator institution
UiB - University of Bergen (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA - Cermaq Norway AS (Norway) ,
NA - Emilsen fisk AS
(Norway) ,
NA - Lerøy Norway Seafoods AS (Norway) ,
NORCE - Norwegian Research Centre (Norway) ,
KU - University of Copenhagen (Denmark) ,
Start year 2019 End year 2023 Funding (€) € 1,415,950 Website https://www.fhf.no/prosjekter/prosjektbasen/901564/ Summary In order to protect the wild populations of salmon, the authorities have set limits for what is a legal infection load with salmon lice in the farming of Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout. Staying below this limit is today the main challenge for the salmon industry, and constitutes a limiting factor for further growth. This is due to a high incidence of resistance to drugs for de-lice, as well as an increased resistance to the use of these de-lice agents. The limitations in the use of medical de-lice have thus led to an increased use of mechanical de-lice methods, cleaning fish and installations to prevent lice infestation. Many have had success using one or more of these measures, but there are, however, a number of problems associated with their use. Here, we can mention increased stress and mortality when the salmon are trapped during mechanical treatments as well as ethical concerns when using cleaner fish. There is thus a great need for new and better measures against salmon lice such as effective vaccines, functional feed that strengthens the salmon's immune system and the development of resistant salmon through breeding or genetic engineering methods such as CRISPR.
In order to create innovation within such control strategies, however, it is important to increase our basic understanding of the host-parasite interaction in the interaction between salmon and salmon lice. There is much evidence that salmon has an inherent resistance mechanism against salmon lice, but that this is dampened/modulated by glandular secretions from the salmon lice. By identifying these immunomodulatory factors, and gaining knowledge of their mechanism of action, one can pave the way for new and effective methods to deal with the salmon lice problem.
Main objective:
To increase understanding of the interaction between salmon lice as a parasite, and salmon as a host (parasite-host interaction). The goals are worked on in three main areas:
1. The salmon louse's exocrine glands:
• To identify and characterize proteins that are important in the salmon louse-salmon interaction.
• To map genes in salmon that are regulated by the salmon louse's salivary gland proteins.
• To try to identify which immune cells the salmon louse's glandular proteins modulate.
• To demonstrate what activates the production of the salmon louse's saliva.
2. Comparison of the salmon specialist (the salmon lice) with the generalist (the lice)
• To identify parasitic host adaptation strategies in salmon lice by comparing the salmon lice's exocrine glands and their secretions with the Scots lice.
• To clarify whether salmon lice make the salmon more susceptible to barnacle lice.
3. Breakdown of the salmon's immune components in the salmon louse's gut
• To investigate how long immune components and immune cells in the salmon's blood are functional in the louse's gut.
• To identify the optimal type of vaccine candidate in the louse's gut; structural or functional.
Keywords
Parasite;
Genomic sequencing;
Genetic;
Salmon;
Fish;
Engineering;
Marine Region
41
Norwegian Sea (27.IIa)
1
Marine Region Map
