IGNITION: Improving green innovation for the blue revolution: New tools and opportunities for a more sustainable animal farming

动物健康和福利是欧洲水产养殖业高度优先研究的问题。特别是，改善动物福利，同时减少兽药的使用是目前的研究重点，以尽量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导致政策制定者、科学界和消费者越来越关注疾病预防的新方法。IGNITION项目旨在揭示气候变化背景下有关动物福利的新知识，并提出减轻压力不利影响的新工具。动物福利的改善将转化为更高质量的养殖动物，从而提高农业生产力和可持续性表现。通过IGNITION，预计将通过基因分型和分子表型技术提供新的知识，以制定未来的鱼类和贝类育种策略。还将提供有关鱼类免疫接种的新的创新工具，旨在改善鱼类福利并针对生命早期阶段。动物饲料将被配制成包括通过一种新的上游级联除盐从盐生植物中提取的生物活性化合物。将特别强调研究和发现新的健康和福利的非侵入性生物标志物，这将反过来允许通过机器学习方法开发生物传感器和疾病预测。IGNITION开发的工具将能够避免病原微生物（包括多重耐药微生物）在养殖动物中的定殖和传播，以及随后通过食物链传播给人类。

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.