Improving GreeN Innovation for the blue revoluTION: new tools and opportunities for a more sustainable animal farming - IGNITION

动物健康和福利是欧洲水产养殖业高度重视的研究问题。特别是，在减少兽药使用的同时改善动物福利是当前的研究优先事项，以最大限度地减少该行业对环境的影响。预防或减少疾病的影响对生产者、研究人员和利益攸关方至关重要。此外，公众对水生动物健康和福利的认识促使政策制定者、科学界和消费者越来越重视疾病预防的新方法。点火项目旨在揭示在气候变化背景下关于动物福利的新知识，并提出新的工具来减轻压力的不利影响。动物福利的改善将转化为更高质量的养殖动物，从而提高农业生产率和可持续发展绩效。通过点火，预计将通过基因分型和分子表型技术提供新的知识，以制定未来鱼类和贝类的育种战略。还将提供关于鱼类免疫的新的创新工具，旨在改善鱼类的福利和针对早期生命阶段。动物饲料的配方将包括通过新型上游串级除盐从盐生植物中提取的生物活性化合物。将特别重视研究和发现新的非侵入性健康和福利生物标记物，这反过来将使生物传感器的开发和通过机器学习方法进行疾病预测成为可能。在点火中开发的工具将能够避免病原微生物在养殖动物中的定居和传播，包括多重耐药微生物，并随后通过食物链传播到人类。

Animal health and welfare are issues of high research priority for European aquaculture. In particular, improving animal welfare whilst reducing the use of veterinary drugs are current research priorities in line with minimizing the environmental impact of the industry. Preventing, or reducing the impact of disease is of prime importance for producers, researchers and stakeholders. In addition, public awareness of aquatic animal health and welfare leads to the increased attention of policy-makers, scientific community and the consumers into new methods for disease prevention. The IGNITION project aims to unveil new knowledge regarding animal welfare in the context of climate change and propose new tools to mitigate the adverse effects of stress. An improvement in animal welfare will translate in higher-quality farmed animals thus improving farming productivity and sustainability performance. Through IGNITION it is expected to provide new knowledge through genotyping and molecular phenotyping techniques to develop future breeding strategies for fish and shellfish. New innovative tools regarding immunization in fish will also be provided, aiming at improving fish welfare and targeting early life stages. Animal feeds will be formulated to include bioactive compounds extracted from halophytes through a novel upstream cascade salt removal. Special emphasis will be given to the study and discovery of new non-invasive biomarkers of health and welfare, which will in turn allow the development of biosensors and disease prediction through machine learning approaches. The tools developed in IGNITION will be able to avoid the colonization and spread of pathogenic microorganisms, including multi-resistant microorganisms, among farmed animals and the subsequent spread to humans through the food chain.