33 results
Adoption
Adoption
PROJECT NUMBER • 2002-640
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Aquatic Animal health Subprogram: production of AQUAVETPLAN disease strategy manual for viral haemorrhagic septicaemia

In the May 2000 Budget, the Federal Government announced its Building a National Approach to Animal and Plant Health program. This initiative seeks to maintain Australia’s status as a sought after supplier of high quality, ‘clean, green’ agricultural produce. Within this...
ORGANISATION:
Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry
TAGS
Invasive Species
SPECIES
Atlantic Salmon
Industry

Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture Subprogram: effective treatments for the control of amoebic gill disease

Project number: 2000-266
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $86,392.00
Principal Investigator: Mark Powell
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 29 Oct 2000 - 2 Dec 2002
:
TAGS
Resource Access And Allocation
Post Harvest
Harvest Strategy
Food Safety
Consumer
SPECIES
Atlantic Salmon

Need

Amoebic Gill Disease is the leading cause of mortality and loss of aquaculture production which plagues the Tasmanian salmon industry in recent years. The financial cost of AGD is estimated at approximately 14% of gross production equating to $15.4M annually. Recently, a combination of warm water temperatures, reduced rainfall and increased production on farms has resulted in a perceived decrease in the effectiveness of current freshwater bathing practices in controlling AGD. Freshwater baths, the usual treatment for treating AGD, appear to be less effective at treating the disease and more frequent baths are required compared with previous years. Recent studies by the Principle and co-investigators (Clark et al. 2000) have shown that freshwater bathing does not reliably kill all of the Paramoeba on salmon gills and re-infection can occur in as little as 10 days post bathing. Since current treatments are proving inadequate, more effective treatment strategies are required for the Tasmanian salmon industry to sustain current production levels.

Objectives

1. Identify water chemistry characteristics that enable Paramoeba to tolerate freshwater bathing.
2. Identify potential additives/supplements to the freshwater bath that promote effective killing of Paramoeba. These treatments must be environmentally friendly and fall within guidelines for the use of compounds for food and within drinking water.
3. Identify the effects of water movement on the clearance of Paramoeba from salmon gills and efficacy for freshwater treatments.
4. Test candidate treatments on a pilot scale examining:Clearance rate of Paramoeba from the gills of salmonRe-infection rate of treated fish.
5. Make available successful treatments and treatment strategies will be available for testing on a commercial scale and for adoption by the industry.

Final report

ISBN: 0-85901-986
Author: Mark Powell
Final Report • 2002-08-16 • 435.78 KB
2000-266-DLD.pdf

Tassal: Flesh quality issues in spring grown Atlantic Salmon

Project number: 2016-271
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $31,722.00
Principal Investigator: Brad Evans
Organisation: Tassal Group
Project start/end date: 12 Oct 2017 - 16 Dec 2017
:
SPECIES
Atlantic Salmon

Need

Following customer complaints of excessive gape in harvested product in September 2016, there was a requirement to understand factors that may be contributing to quality issues. Historical records revealed that this is a common complaint during this period of the harvest cycle and this research is the first step in developing a long term strategy for understanding the issue and improving the consistency of harvest product throughout the year.

The aim of this study is to
(i) develop techniques to document and compare fish quality within CSIRO and Tassal,
(ii) benchmark the texture and gaping status of harvest fish
(iii) explore biochemical and structural factors that correlate to gaping
(iv) develop a longer term approach to monitoring and managing seasonal flesh quality issues.

Objectives

1. • Understand harvest stress effects upon flesh quality in Tassal salmon, and develop methodology to mitigate stress
Environment

Aquafin CRC - Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture Subprogram: commercial AGD and salmon health project

Project number: 2004-213
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $499,671.00
Principal Investigator: Mark Powell
Organisation: University of Tasmania (UTAS)
Project start/end date: 29 Jun 2004 - 1 Sep 2007
:
TAGS
Stock Assessment
Post Harvest
Nutrition
Husbandry
Freshwater
SPECIES
Atlantic Salmon

Need

There is an urgent need to develop and commercialise treatments for the control of amoebic gill disease in the Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry in Tasmania. The cost-benefit analysis undertaken by the Aquafin CRC suggested a net present value of economic benefit of $21.6M AUD and a benefit/cost ratio of 5.3. The need for short term (even interim) solutions for the control of AGD is paramount.

This project complements and continues the advances made by previous research (FRDC 2000/266 and 2001/205) that identified potential treatments. The current project will investigate commercial feasibility of treatments previously identified while providing an opportunity for examining new potential AGD treatments at the behest of the salmon aquaculture industry. Industry representatives, in a recent meeting, (January 15, 2004 Marine Research Laboratories, Taroona TAS) iterated the need for a flexible program that would allow potential treatments and control measures to be tested in the laboratory as well as in the field. This proposal (with budgetary constraints) has been developed to provide that flexibility with clearly identified treatments that will be investigated in the first instance. The road to commercialisation of any disease control treatment is a long and complex one, this project is designed to provide the information that may lead to a change of commercial practice in the control of AGD.

A program for the development and commercialisation of disease treatments is grounded in the identification of potential treatments that are tested both in vitro and in vivo in the laboratory. Once suitable laboratory testing is complete, then small-scale field trials are required and finally the scaling up of trials for commercialisation. A program for treatment develop must operate over a minimum of a 3 year funding cycle to maximise the likelihood of success maximising the productivity and contributions of all staff (Research leaders, technicians, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students). Through this approach, the outcomes of the research can be achieved, providing tangible solutions for industry, the acquisition of knowledge and intellectual property for the CRC and the training of quality personnel (Post-docs and PhD students).

Objectives

1. To undertake commercial scale investigations into the potential use of seawater bath treatments (eg chloramine-T, artificially softened freshwater or hydrogen peroxide) as a strategy for AGD control.
2. To investigate the efficacy of in feed treatments such as:Parasiticides (eg, bithionol)Nutritional supplements (eg AquaciteTM and betabecTM)Mucolytic agents (eg L cysteine ethyl ester)
3. To test new and novel anti-parasitic compounds for potential use in bath or in-feed treatments for AGD.

Final report

ISBN: 978-1-86295-378-9
Author: Mark Powell
Final Report • 2009-04-29
2004-213-DLD.pdf

Summary

Prior to this project there had been investigations into some potential candidate amoebicides, with little success except for the possibility of oxidative disinfectants such as chloramine-T.  This project has since tested a number of amoebicides using a progressive approach of in vitro toxicity, in vivo efficacy in the laboratory through to in vivo efficacy under field conditions in either semi-commercial or under full commercialised field trials. 

Although the practical delivery of some of these as treatments of amoebic gill disease (AGD), such as chloramine-T bathing, appear not to be practicable, other avenues may have potential for further commercial development, such as the dietary inclusion of potential amoebicidal compounds, including bithionol and ionophore-based amoebicides.  The project has explored the potential of bithionol, a registered amoebicidal drug, as an in-feed treatment, showing that AGD severity can be reduced by approximately 50%.  Similarly, the project has examined the efficacy of an immunostimulant-based feed additive, Aquacite and Betabec which reduced mortality in Atlantic salmon with AGD but did not affect the intensity of infection.

This project has further characterised the effects of gill disease, in particular AGD, with respect to the metabolic cost of disease to the fish.  This work has estimated that in excess of 17%  of the ingested energy is likely to go to service the cost of AGD.  This approach provides a useful tool to incorporate into bioeconomic models for assessing the efficacy of AGD treatments in the future.

Keywords:  Amoebic gill disease, Atlantic salmon, disease treatment.

Environment
Industry
PROJECT NUMBER • 2011-771
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: genetic selection for Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD) resilience in the Tasmanian Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) breeding program

Amoebic gill disease (AGD) continues to have a significant economic impact upon production of sea-farmed Atlantic salmon in Tasmania. Reducing mortality is economically important for the fish farmer and is equally important from an animal welfare perspective. The process of freshwater bathing...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
TAGS
Toxin
SPECIES
Atlantic Salmon
Environment
PROJECT NUMBER • 2010-741
PROJECT STATUS:
COMPLETED

Seafood CRC: synopsis of Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD) research to date and review/recommendation of future AGD related R&D directions including the development of a vaccine for AGD

The major outcome of this project was the development of a 2011 R&D strategy by the TSGA. This included a list of R&D priorities for 2011, including AGD related research, and a specific list of areas of interest for 2011. Subsequent to this the TSGA received 7 project proposals pertaining to...
ORGANISATION:
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Hobart
TAGS
Vaccine
SPECIES
Atlantic Salmon
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