The development of diagnostic techniques to assess anaemia in aquaculture reared Atlantic Salmon (Salmo Salar).

在过去的12个月里，贫血已经成为苏格兰鲑鱼养殖中鱼类健康的一个重大威胁。贫血发生在红细胞缺乏时，降低了血液的携氧能力，并对鱼类的健康和生产产生负面影响。通过最近与水产养殖合作伙伴举行的工商总局项目会议，突出表明该行业在确定发生的贫血类型、确定其来源并随后制定预防战略方面的实际方法有限。苏格兰水产养殖业正在寻求建立血液学监测计划，以描述和量化贫血的影响，但目前还没有获得鱼类血液学自动化技术，并且依赖于缓慢，劳动密集型和主观的手工技术。由于缺乏技术进步，也导致缺乏建立适当“正常”背景水平的参考数据。该项目的总目标是发展和验证评估水产养殖中大西洋鲑鱼贫血的有效方法，这些方法可被工业界采用并纳入其定期鱼类健康管理方案。目前正在对现有的兽医和医疗血液学设备进行验证，以评估鱼的血液，由于鱼的血细胞是有核的，这要困难得多。然而，一旦相关技术建立并得到验证，他们就可以对鱼类贫血进行调查，并将这些结果应用到更广泛的鱼类健康测量中，使用高通量、自动化的医疗技术来评估临床化学和免疫学终点，这些终点经过验证，可以在涉及相同合作伙伴的单独（SAIC资助的）项目中用于鱼类。这项研究的主要好处和影响将是改善鱼类健康管理，增加鱼类福利和生长，随后通过降低成本、增加产量和改善产品质量使该行业受益。发展适当的诊断系统以评估鲑鱼水产养殖中的贫血需要；A)开发和验证鲑鱼血液的快速、自动化血液学方法，b)将这些血液学数据与鱼类健康和疾病的相关端点相结合。采用整体诊断方法，将血液学结果置于鱼类健康的背景下，通过对生物化学和免疫学终点的高通量评估和组织学分析进行调查。这一创新方法提供了有关贫血病因的信息，从而能够确定解决办法。需要在血液样本制备和储存、数据解释，特别是与贫血相关的生理影响的整合方面进行创新。目前在鱼类血液学方面缺乏参考值，这项工作将有助于建立有益于苏格兰鲑鱼养殖业的参考数据。在项目的最后阶段，将使用血液学、临床化学和免疫学高通量分析仪，对苏格兰各地大西洋鲑鱼的贫血进行识别、定义、量化，并测量其影响，这些分析仪将集成到一种主动的机械化技术先进方法中，以评估鱼类健康。这些技术与英国和国际上的鲑鱼养殖业相关，应制定便于用户使用的实用指南和协议，并举办参与研讨会，提供实际培训和实践，以鼓励将这些技术纳入整个行业，从而大大增加本研究的影响。

Over the last 12 months anaemia has emerged as a significant threat to fish health in salmon aquaculture in Scotland. Anaemia occurs when there is a lack of red blood cells, reducing the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood and negatively impacting on fish health and production. Through recent SAIC project meetings with the aquaculture partners it was highlighted that the industry has limited practical methods to define the type of anaemia occurring, identify its source and subsequently develop a preventative strategy against it. The Scottish aquaculture industry is looking to establish a haematology monitoring programme, to characterise and quantify the impact of anaemia, but does not currently have access to automated technologies for fish haematology and is reliant on slow, labour intensive and subjective manual techniques. This lack of technological advancement has also resulted in a lack of reference data for the establishment of appropriate 'normal' background levels. The overall aim of this project is the development and validation of efficient methods to assess anaemia in Atlantic salmon in aquaculture that can be adopted by the industry and included into their regular fish health management programmes. This is being undertaken by the validation of existing veterinary and medical haematology devices for assessment of fish blood, which is considerably more difficult owing to fish blood cells being nucleated. However once the relevant techniques are established and validated they shall be used to investigate anaemia in fish and to put those results into the wider context of fish health measured using high throughput, automated medical technologies to assess clinical chemistry and immunology endpoints validated for use with fish in a separate (SAIC funded) project involving the same collaborative partners.The main benefit and impact of this research shall be improvements in fish health management, increasing fish welfare and growth, subsequently benefiting the industry by a reduction in costs, increased yield and improved product quality. The development of an appropriate diagnostic system to assess anaemia in salmon aquaculture requires; a) the development and validation of rapid, automated haematological methods for salmon blood, and b) the integration of this haematology data with relevant endpoints on fish health and disease. A holistic diagnostic approach is taken, placing the haematology findings in the context of fish health investigated by the high throughput assessment of biochemistry and immunology endpoints and histological analysis. This innovative approach provides information on the cause of anaemia, thereby allowing identification of solutions. Innovation is needed in the area of blood sample preparation and storage, data interpretation and particularly with the integration of physiological impacts associated with anaemia. There is a current lack of reference values in fish haematology and this work shall contribute towards the establishment of reference data of benefit to the salmon aquaculture industry in Scotland.In the final stage of the project anaemia in Atlantic salmon from various sites around Scotland shall be identified, defined, quantified and its impact measured using haematological, clinical chemistry and immunology high-throughput analysers integrated into a pro-active mechanised technologically advanced method to assess fish heath. These techniques are relevant to the salmon aquaculture industry in the UK and internationally and user friendly practical guides and protocols shall be developed along with an engagement workshop to offer hands on training and practice to encourage the inclusion of these techniques throughout the industry, greatly increasing the impact of this research.