Acronym COOLFISH
Category
Aquaculture
Title Improving Atlantic salmon health and welfare by metabolic programming 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 Erik Burgerhout Coordinator email erik.burgerhout@nofima.no
Coordinator institution
NOFIMA - Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Norway)
Institutions involved
FBN - Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (Germany) ,
UIN - Nord University (Norway) ,
NA - University of Edinburgh; Roslin Institute (United Kingdom) ,
UiO - University of Oslo (Norway) ,
Start year 2021 End year 2026 Funding (€) € 1,200,000 Website https://nofima.com/projects/improving-atlantic-salmon-health-and-welfare-by-metabolic-programming/ Summary In the Norwegian salmon industry about 20% of fish fail to reach the end of the production line, largely due to infectious diseases indicating impaired immune function. There is thus a clear need to produce salmon with high robustness, i.e. rapid growth coupled to a high level of disease resistance.
However, immune function and growth systems in fishes are highly interlinked due to trade-offs in energetic allocation; a challenge producing robust salmon. Environmental stress during critical developmental periods can permanently change the physiology and immunology of an organism (metabolic programming). We propose that high embryonic temperatures predisposes salmon to reduced immune function and disease later in life.
This project's primary objective is to define the role and mechanistic basis for programming by embryonic temperature on the development and function of the Atlantic salmon immune system later in life, and exploit this knowledge to enhance fish health, welfare and production. The following questions will be addressed: How is the development of the immune system and the adult immune response affected by embryonic temperature? What are the underlying molecular physiological and epigenetic mechanisms of metabolic programming? Can metabolic programming of immune function be used to enhance robustness to boost welfare and production?
Focusing on the immune system, the COOLFISH project will characterize physiological changes in salmon phenotypes to different embryonic temperature regimes using multi-level (i.e. epigenomic, transcriptomic, single-cell transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and immunological) analyses. This ambitious and multidisciplinary project will provide in-depth knowledge on the physiological and integrated molecular mechanisms driving the interaction between the embryonic rearing environment and immune system function. New knowledge will be created that can be directly implemented by the industry towards the production of robust fish.
Keywords
Fish health;
Salmon;
Fish biology;
Genetic;
Fish;
Marine Region
41
Norwegian Sea (27.IIa)
1
Marine Region Map
