Development of salmon specific, immunology assays for automated analysis

Partners: University of the West of Scotland (UWS), University of Aberdeen, WellFish Diagnostics Ltd, Vertebrate Antibodies Ltd, Bakkafrost Scotland

Funders: UK Seafood Innovation Fund (SIF) and SAIC

* The UK Seafood Innovation Fund supported new ideas to deliver cutting-edge technology and innovation to the UK’s fishing, aquaculture and seafood industries.

Administered by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the programme encouraged sustainable and innovative ideas to bring about seafood security, new partnerships across seafood and technology sectors, and to contribute to strong evidence-based management.

AIM

This project aims to differentiate specific pathogens based on the reaction of a suite of immunology biomarkers, increasing availability of immunology biomarkers for fish health and diagnostic screening purposes.

OUTCOME

Atlantic salmon production dominates Scottish aquaculture, with Scotland being the third-largest producer of Atlantic salmon after Norway and Chile. In 2021, 188,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) were harvested in Scotland, representing an increase of 17% on the previous year’s production with an export value of £614 million (Scottish Salmon, 2021).

Salmon in aquaculture can be affected by a range of viral and bacterial pathogens, the most important causing Pancreas Disease (PD), Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI), Cardiomyopathy Syndrome (CMS) and Gill Diseases (AGD, CGD). Currently, diagnosis of these health challenges is based on clinical signs examined using the lethal techniques histopathology and qPCR.

In this SIF feasibility project, the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) the University of Aberdeen, WellFish Diagnostics Ltd, Vertebrate Antibodies Ltd and Bakkafrost Scotland have collaborated on the development of non-lethal, blood based immunological methods to identify early-stage infection. As with any disease in any species, early detection and intervention leads to less mortality. In this study, we identified proteins present in the serum of infected fish (CMS, PD, HSMI and AGD), measured using serological testing. Immunoassays were developed and tested on field and experimentally challenged Atlantic salmon. This study identified several immunology biomarkers including acute phase proteins and muscle biomarkers to assess Atlantic salmon health using serum samples. It is intended to develop and validate fish specific assays for these biomarkers to enable their use on high-throughput medical instruments to be used for screening tests for the aquaculture industry.

This project led to a follow study, funded by SIF and SAIC, Early detection, healthier salmon: advancing biomarker diagnostics for a sustainable Scottish aquaculture