ROBUST-SMOLT Impact of early life history in freshwater Recirculation Aquaculture Systems on A. salmon robustness and susceptibility to disease at sea
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: The Roslin Institute
Abstract
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Technical Summary
The adoption of Recirculation Aquaculture Systems for freshwater salmon production has clear benefits however, fish transferred from RAS systems are not performing equally to fish reared in open water loch systems. In the current project, we hypothesise that RAS rearing conditions, especially water chemistry and microbiology, nutrition, photoperiod and temperature, affect early life history traits of salmon and impact on microbiomes, immune barriers, osmoregulation, and robustness at sea especially for gill pathologies and new anaemic syndrome. The proposed research is multidisciplinary and will develop basic knowledge on RAS, photo-thermal history, diet and vaccine effects on fish physiology that may predispose fish to disease at sea. Two large-scale trials will be performed to test RAS vs. open water lochs in a commercial setting and the interaction between photoperiod, diet and vaccine in a controlled experiment. In addition, small-scale experiments will test the effects of increased CO2 on salmon physiology, the effects of freshwater history on smolt immune function (using double stranded RNA challenge) and post-smolt amoebic gill disease susceptibility when challenged with infectious agent N. Peruvans. A toolbox will be used to study fish health biomarkers including blood chemistry, haematopoietic indexes, endocrine status and immune function including leukocyte inflammatory markers, anti-viral response in erythrocytes and plasma prostaglandins. The genotype by environment interaction will also be studied. Experimental and production data will be combined in a meta-analysis to produce a unique large-scale epidemiological study and identify risk factors for disease at sea. Major outcomes will be industry recommendations, protocols and tools for early freshwater conditioning that promote enhanced immune function and health at sea. The ROBUST-SMOLT project will contribute to boost the competitiveness and sustainability of the UK aquaculture sector.
Planned Impact
See Lead Institution Form
Publications
Anacleto O
(2019)
Genetic differences in host infectivity affect disease spread and survival in epidemics.
in Scientific reports
Doeschl-Wilson A
(2021)
Review: Livestock disease resilience: from individual to herd level.
in Animal : an international journal of animal bioscience
Gratacap R
(2019)
Potential of Genome Editing to Improve Aquaculture Breeding and Production
in Trends in Genetics
Knap P
(2020)
Why breed disease-resilient livestock, and how?
in Genetics Selection Evolution
Pooley C
(2022)
Optimal experimental designs for estimating genetic and non-genetic effects underlying infectious disease transmission.
in Genetics, selection, evolution : GSE
Robinson N
(2022)
Applying genetic technologies to combat infectious diseases in aquaculture
in Reviews in Aquaculture
Simm G
(2021)
Genetic improvement of farmed animals
Simm G
(2021)
Genetic improvement of farmed animals
Simm G
(2021)
Genetic improvement of farmed animals
Simm G
(2021)
Genetic improvement of farmed animals
| Description | In a commercial setting, we explored the genetic structure of growth characteristics, measure genotype-environment interactions (GxE) in salmon smolts, and examined genetic markers related to growth in freshwater lochs and RAS. Young salmon were raised together until they reached the parr stage, after which they were divided equally between freshwater net-pens and RAS. After an eight-week period, we sampled fish from each environment and genotyped them. Our findings revealed that fish reared in RAS were generally smaller in weight and length but exhibited a higher condition factor and uniformity. We found a notably smaller component of unexplained variance in the RAS, leading to higher heritability estimates. We observed a low GxE effect for length and condition factor, but significant re-ranking for whole-body weight, as well as noticeable differences in trait associations across environments. Specifically, a segment of chromosome 22 was found to be linked with the condition factor in the RAS population only. Results suggests that if the use of RAS continues to expand, the efficiency of existing commercial populations may not reach its full potential unless breeding programs specific to RAS are implemented. |
| Exploitation Route | The results will be of relevance to Atlantic salmon breeders and producers. They need to consider the impact of the early rearing environment in order to achieve the desired performance (and potentially health) at the later life stages. As the use of RAS for Atlantic salmon production continues to expand, implementation of breeding programs specific to RAS may be required to reach high efficiency in commercial populations. Salmon producers should acquire information about the early rearing environment of their fish. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink |
| Description | The industry partner Mowi is taking the results of the GxE study into consideration for their new breeding programme design and research projects. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | BBSRC Responsive Mode |
| Amount | £1,640,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/V009818/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2021 |
| End | 08/2025 |
| Description | EU H2020 collaborative project ECO-READY- Achieving Ecological Resilient Dynamisms for the European food system through consumer-driven policies, socio-ecological challenges, biodiversity, data-driven policy, sustainable futures |
| Amount | € 14,948,450 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 101084201 - ECO-READY |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 12/2022 |
| End | 11/2025 |
| Description | Genome editing for resistance to viral disease in rainbow trout |
| Amount | £161,786 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Hendrix Genetics |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Start | 11/2020 |
| End | 02/2022 |
| Description | Prevention & Control of Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and modelling |
| Amount | £583,602 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BBS/E/RL/230002D |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2023 |
| End | 03/2028 |
| Description | Prevention & Control of Infectious Diseases: Understanding the basis of host resistance |
| Amount | £502,785 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BBS/E/RL/230002A |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2023 |
| End | 03/2028 |
| Description | TRAnsforming the DEbate about livestock systems transformation (TRADE) |
| Amount | £677,397 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/W018152/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2022 |
| End | 05/2025 |
| Description | BBSRC Singapore - Malaysia - UK Partnering Award: Genetic innovations to support sustainable tropical aquaculture |
| Organisation | Worldfish |
| Country | Malaysia |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Co-Investigator: partnership development and grant writing; provision of methods and ideas for collaborative research |
| Collaborator Contribution | all partners contributed to the partnership development and grant writing; The University of Edinburgh will host researchers from Malaysia and provide training in the UK and Malaysia |
| Impact | Approaches to incorporate genomic data into the WorldFish tilapia selective breeding programme; |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Strategic research partnership with WorldFish |
| Organisation | Worldfish |
| Country | Malaysia |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Roslin and Worldfish have a strategic research partnership since 2018 which focuses on selective breeding of Nile tilapia, one of the world's most important farmed fish species. Roslin scientists are developing genomic tools, and investigating how those genomic tools can be used to improve disease resistance of tilapia via breeding. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners WorldFish run a tilapia breeding programme which provides samples and data to support the research undertaken at Roslin. This breeding programme also provides the route to impact by which the improved strains can be disseminated to benefit low and middle income country fish farmers. |
| Impact | This has led to a peer reviewed publication https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0044848619331837 describing genetic resistance to tilapia lake virus, which is one of the most problematic pathogens for global aquaculture. The story was presented in news form via the University of Edinburgh https://www.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-infectious-diseases/news/news/genetic-resistance-to-lethal-virus-in-farmed-fish and also Science magazine https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/emerging-virus-killing-farmed-fish-breeders-can-help-them-fight-back |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Discussion leader at a scientific conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Discussion group leader of the "Health and Welfare Traits" session at the Quantitative Genetics and Genomics Gordon Research Conference, Ventura, February 2023. The session informed the audience about the state of the art of genomic approaches to human and animal health and welfare, and identified research gaps, and pathways to future implementation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Invited talk at an international conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at the World Congress in Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP) 2022 on "New tools and insights to enable breeding for reduced disease transmission. " The talk informed the audience about the latest approaches to reduce disease transmission in farm animals through selective breeding |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-940-4_168 |
| Description | Lead Organiser of the BBSRC Cross Institute workshop on "The Future Role of Livestock in Food Production |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this 2 day workshop, funded by the BBSRC, scientists and industry experts examined the need and scope for change in the livestock sector in response to increasing societal and environmental challenges. The outcome of the workshop resulted in a recommendation document sent to BBSRC that outlined the status quo and research and funding needs for future livestock research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.ed.ac.uk/roslin/news-events/latest-news/future-of-livestock-production-in-the-spotlight |
| Description | New Scientist Future of Food Webinar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Ross Houston took part in the New Scientist Future of Food and Agriculture workshop by taking part in a panel discussion on genome editing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.newscientist.com/science-events/future-food-agriculture/ |
| Description | Panellist at the live online University of Edinburgh: Changing World Conversations event, Nov 2022. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This one hour virtual event was part of the University of Edinburgh's contribution to Cop26. I was one of three panel members. Our role was to inform the public about ongoing research in agriculture to mitigate the impact of climate change and to answer questions from members from the public. Many more questions were submitted by the public that could be addressed, showing the strong interest in the field. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFiXTAz3vbM&list=PLBcSHVMkBQZgnM7t4LFMV11oEofR2J1vX&index=4 |
| Description | Participated as one of 4 panellists in the Science Media briefing event Can We Have Our Meat and Eat It? - The Future of Meat Production" Science Media Centre London 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | The briefing resulted in a wide media coverage in many regional and national newspapers, including the Guardian, The Sun, The Times etc.: Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/28/gm-could-help-cut-livestock-methane-emissions-say-scientists PA via Hereford Times https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/national/18063917.breeding-help-cattle-become-environmentally-friendly-scientists-say/ Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/11/27/meat-crucial-feeding-planet-going-vegan-not-green-say-scientists/ PA via iNews Clips Sky News https://news.sky.com/story/cattle-may-be-bred-to-grow-faster-and-eat-less-and-could-cut-methane-emissions-by-a-third-11871988 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | UKRI Climate change profile piece for Cop 26: |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | I was one of the University of Edinburgh's "climate pioneers" to contribute a short video clip describing how research on infectious disease in farm animals contributes to mitigating the impact of climate change on food security |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.ukri.org/our-work/responding-to-climate-change/our-climate-pioneers/ |