In a project led by the Roslin Institute with salmon farmer Mowi Scotland, experts will seek to understand how to limit the impact of chronic complex diseases, enabling better health and welfare. The team will use a range of approaches and technologies to improve resilience to disease throughout the salmon lifecycle.

They will establish a world-leading framework to identify regions of the salmon genome associated with complex diseases, using this knowledge to support the breeding of healthy stocks. The team will focus on fish heart and gill health, using detailed studies of the species’ DNA code, genes linked to key traits, and resseeks toearch into the immune system to improve resilience to disease throughout the fish lifecycle.

Researchers will track hundreds of salmon families across the full production cycle, focusing on key areas, including seeking to understand the diversity of genomes, the impact of early rearing practices and developing novel characteristics to select the most robust fish from the breeding population.

Scientists will investigate how the rearing temperature during the early development of fish impacts the link between disease, immunity and response to vaccination. They will also develop novel ways to separately measure disease resistance, tolerance and infectivity as traits for robustness.

“The scientific objectives outlined are highly strategically relevant and deliver immediate translational opportunities to salmon production to benefit the Scottish, UK and global salmon farming sectors, further increasing animal welfare, profitability, sustainability, and societal acceptance,” said Professor Herve Migaud, health, welfare and biology director at Mowi.

“We seek to advance the fundamental understanding of fish health and robustness at multiple levels across the salmon life cycle, a proposal only possible through such a large-scale partnership with industry,” said Nick Wade from Roslin Institute.