Introducing the SAIC Science Panel: meet Fernando

Dr Fernando Mardones, veterinary epidemiologist and senior lecturer, Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems, part of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh

The SAIC Science Panel is a group of internationally renowned scientists who will be assisting SAIC in our mission to drive innovation in Scottish aquaculture. In this interview series we introduce each panel member, giving you a glimpse into their background, insights, and memorable moments.

This time, we hear from Dr Fernando Mardones, a veterinary epidemiologist and Senior Lecturer in One Health and Aquaculture at the University of Edinburgh, who is in constant search of invisible pathogen pathways. 

MUDDY BOOTS AND SALT WATER

“It started with mud on my boots and the smell of salt water,” says Fernando when we ask what set him on the path to working in aquaculture. After qualifying as a veterinarian at the Universidad de Chile, he went to work on Chiloé Island in southern Chile — one of the heartlands of the global salmon farming industry. “My job was simple in theory,” Fernando continues: “keep the fish healthy on net-pen farms scattered across the fjords. In practice, I was immediately confronted with disease outbreaks I didn't fully understand, data that didn't connect, and decisions that had to be made under enormous uncertainty.

“That frustration sent me to UC Davis [University of California] to study preventive veterinary medicine and, eventually, epidemiology. I became fascinated by the idea that with the right methods, the right models, maps, and data, you could begin to see patterns in disease that were invisible to the individual farm veterinarian on the ground. My PhD on the epidemiology of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISAV) in Chile was, in a sense, me trying to make sense of the outbreak I'd watched unfold from inside the industry. I've been chasing that question ever since: How do diseases spread through aquaculture systems, and what can we do about it?”

THE HUMAN DIMENSION

Fernando describes the ISAV epidemic in Chile between 2007 and 2009 as one of the most dramatic events in the history of global aquaculture. “I had a front-row seat,” he recalls, “first as a practitioner and later as an epidemiologist reconstructing what happened. Watching an industry collapse in real time, and then using mathematical models to trace how the virus moved between farms via fish transfers, water currents, and shared equipment, was both intellectually extraordinary and deeply humbling.

“What surprised me most was not the biology, but the human dimension: how quickly fear and uncertainty led to poor decisions, how much misinformation circulated, and how long it took for evidence to reach decision-makers in a form they could use. It convinced me that epidemiology is not just about models; it’s about communication, trust, and the relationship between science and society.”

AN HONEST, INDEPENDENT VOICE

Fernando sees joining the SAIC Science Panel as a natural step in his journey as an aquatic epidemiologist and One Health advocate. He explains: “I arrived at the University of Edinburgh in March 2025 as Senior Lecturer in One Health and Aquaculture, and Scotland's salmon farming industry — one of the most important in the world — immediately stood out as an exciting frontier for the kind of interdisciplinary, data-driven research I have spent my career developing. SAIC's mission to drive evidence-based innovation resonates deeply with my own conviction that science must be translated into practical tools for farmers, veterinarians, and policymakers.”

Fernando’s extensive background spans epidemiology, spatial disease modelling, risk analysis, and One Health, with a particular focus on aquaculture systems, including salmon, tilapia, and shrimp. Over more than two decades he has developed outbreak investigation frameworks, disease transmission models, surveillance strategies, and antimicrobial stewardship tools, working with FAO, national governments, and industry partners across Latin America, Europe, and beyond. “I believe that expertise can add real value to SAIC by helping to link quantitative epidemiology with on-farm realities, and by strengthening connections between Scottish aquaculture and the global research community,” he says.

“I hope the Science Panel can serve as an honest, independent voice that helps SAIC prioritise research investments where evidence and need truly align, rather than being directed by short-term commercial interest or regulatory pressure.”

A RARE COMBINATION

In more specific terms, Fernando hopes the Science Panel can help achieve the following:

• Advocate for longer-term, systems-level research, particularly on disease ecology and environmental sustainability, where there is market underinvestment.
• Strengthen international connections, positioning Scottish aquaculture science as a global reference point and opening doors to collaborative funding and knowledge exchange.
• Champion One Health and interdisciplinary approaches, ensuring that aquaculture research increasingly reflects the complexity of the real world, where fish health, human health, and environmental health are inseparable.

Aside from the above ambitions, however, we were also curious to hear what benefits Fernando is hoping to gain from being a Science Panel member. He replies: “Honestly, I am hoping to learn as much as I contribute. Having arrived in Scotland relatively recently, I believe the Science Panel offers me an invaluable opportunity to deepen my understanding of the specific biological, regulatory, environmental, and social context of Scottish aquaculture — context that no amount of reading can fully provide.

“I also look forward to building new collegial relationships with scientists and practitioners I would not otherwise encounter, and to being part of a community that takes both scientific rigour and real-world impact seriously. That combination is rare and worth seeking out.”

TRANSFORMING HEALTH AT SCALE

We asked Fernando what he perceives as the most important challenges facing aquaculture over the next decade, and he sets them out as follows: “From my perspective, three interconnected challenges stand out above all others:

• Infectious disease management and antimicrobial resistance. Diseases like salmon rickettsial septicaemia (SRS), sea lice, and viral pathogens continue to drive enormous production losses and antibiotic use globally. As farming intensifies and climate change shifts disease pressure, we urgently need smarter surveillance systems, better diagnostic tools, and targeted, data-informed treatment protocols that reduce antibiotic dependency.
• Climate change and environmental sustainability. Rising sea temperatures, harmful algal blooms, and changing pathogen distributions are reshaping what is possible in open-net pen aquaculture. Industry and science must collaborate to model future risk scenarios and adapt farm management accordingly — including exploring more resilient production systems.
• Data integration and decision-support. Farms and regulatory authorities generate vast amounts of health, environmental, and production data, yet much of it remains siloed. Harnessing this data through spatial analysis, modelling, and machine learning, within robust governance frameworks, is perhaps the single greatest opportunity to transform how we manage aquaculture health at scale.”

OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION

“Scotland has an exceptional concentration of aquaculture expertise: universities, research institutes, regulators, and a sophisticated industry, which is still underexploited as an integrated ecosystem,” says Fernando. Listed below are what he sees as the greatest opportunities for collaboration in the sector:

• Shared surveillance and data platforms. A unified, real-time fish health surveillance system for Scottish salmon farms, linking farm records, diagnostic laboratory data, and environmental monitoring, could transform outbreak response and long-term disease management.
• One Health and environmental interface research. Connecting fish health science with marine ecology, public health, and food systems research would produce more durable and socially credible solutions to biosecurity challenges.
• International knowledge exchange. Scotland can leverage its world-class reputation to build deeper partnerships with Norway, Chile, Canada, and emerging aquaculture nations — turning Scottish innovations into global standards and vice versa.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

“Several converging technologies excite me most,” answers Fernando, when asked which emerging developments he thinks could have the biggest impact on growth in Scottish aquaculture. He sets out the following:

• Spatial and predictive epidemiology. Combining GIS, environmental data, and farm-level health records to produce risk maps and early warning systems for disease outbreaks is maturing rapidly. Applied at scale across Scottish sea lochs, this could enable proactive rather than reactive disease management.
• Machine learning and remote sensing. Underwater cameras, biosensors, and AI-driven behavioural analysis are creating new windows into fish welfare and health that were unimaginable a decade ago.
• Vaccines and non-antibiotic therapies. The global race to develop effective vaccines for bacterial pathogens like Piscirickettsia salmonis holds enormous promise for reducing antibiotic use. Scotland's investment in vaccinology and immunology research positions it well to lead.
• Genomics and metagenomics. Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveillance and pathogen genomics are transforming our ability to detect and characterise disease threats early and track transmission pathways at a farm-network scale.

INVISIBLE PATHWAYS

On a slightly more frivolous note, we asked Fernando what his superpower would be. “The ability to see invisible transmission pathways,” he responds: “to watch, in real time, how a pathogen moves from one fish to another, from one farm to the next, across a network of sea lochs and supply chains. I spend a large part of my professional life trying to reconstruct those pathways from indirect evidence. Having direct vision would make the epidemiology considerably faster, though admittedly less interesting to solve.”

UNCERTAINTY IS NOT A WEAKNESS

Finally, we sought Fernando’s view on how best to communicate the value, integrity and fascination of science in a world of soundbites and ‘post-truth’ culture. “By telling true stories well,” he replies. “I don’t think the answer is more data or more press releases — it's narrative. People don’t change their understanding of the world through statistics; they change it through stories that make them feel something. Scientists need to get better at being characters in their own research stories: explaining why they care, what surprised them, what they got wrong, and what they still don't know.

“I also think we need to be honest about uncertainty. Post-truth culture partly thrives because scientists sometimes project false confidence, and when that confidence is shown to be misplaced, trust collapses. Saying ‘here is what we know, here is what we don’t, and here is how confident we are’ is not a weakness — it's the most powerful thing a scientist can do.”

We’re very grateful to Fernando for sharing his thoughts and insights with us. You can read his bio on the SAIC website here.