Development of a non lethal sampling method to monitor immune response and disease progression in salmonid fish.

开发一种非致命采样方法来监测鲑鱼的免疫反应和疾病进展。

• 批准号: G1100675/1
• 负责人: Bertrand Collet
• 金额: $ 55.51万
• 依托单位: Marine Scotland
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G1100675%2F1
• 关键词: Development; non; lethal; sampling; method

Fish farming in the UK and around the world faces serious economical threats from viruses and bacteria causing outbreaks and loss of valuable livestock. Vaccines and immunostimulants are often administered to fish to prevent these outbreaks. Continuous research is required to verify whether new products are effective. In order to do so, research worldwide is routinely carried out whereby large groups of animals are experimentally infected with a pathogen. The level of mortalities in groups of fish treated with such substances are then compared with a group of untreated fish. Other researchers have focused on understanding how the fish immune system works and how it combats invasion by bacteria and viruses. For this, experiments are undertaken whereby a group of fish is experimentally infected with viral or bacterial pathogens, then at regular intervals, at least 5 fish are killed and analysed. Both methods are very costly in terms of the number of animals used, and we propose to reduce this from the work carried out during this 2 year project. Instead of killing fish at regular intervals, we propose to take small volumes of blood repeatedly during the course of the infection without harming the fish. The number of animals required for this experiment design represents only 20 % of the number of fish required using traditional sampling methods. In addition, following the same fish during the course of the infection will allow a better understanding of the immune response elicited by the fish, and the outcome of this response i.e. death or survival. Part of the project will be dedicated to improving the analysis method. Because only a small volume of blood is repeatedly sampled over the course of the infection, novel methods are required to measure and describe the immune response. Some of the tools to be includes are antibodies, specifically recognise individual immune molecules, information on fish immune genes and the existence of immortal fish cells that can be cultivated in vitro. These methods will be adapted for use with the small volumes of blood collected and will be used to understand which blood cells, and serum molecules are important in combating the pathogen. The relation between the cell types, the molecules involved, the type of pathogen and the final outcome of the infection will be very important in predicting the severity of infection, determining the appropriate immunostimulant to be used and improving existing fish vaccines.

在英国和世界各地的养鱼业面临着严重的经济威胁，来自病毒和细菌的爆发和宝贵的牲畜损失。为了防止这些疾病的爆发，经常给鱼类注射疫苗和免疫刺激剂。需要不断研究，以验证新产品是否有效。为了做到这一点，全世界的研究都是例行进行的，其中大群动物被实验性地感染病原体。然后将用这些物质处理的鱼组的死亡率水平与未处理的鱼组进行比较。其他研究人员专注于了解鱼类免疫系统如何工作，以及它如何对抗细菌和病毒的入侵。为此，进行了实验，其中一组鱼实验性地感染病毒或细菌病原体，然后定期杀死至少5条鱼并进行分析。这两种方法在使用的动物数量方面都非常昂贵，我们建议在这2年项目期间减少这一点。我们建议在感染过程中重复抽取少量血液，而不是定期杀死鱼类，而不会伤害鱼类。该实验设计所需的动物数量仅为使用传统取样方法所需的鱼类数量的20%。此外，在感染过程中跟踪同一条鱼将允许更好地理解鱼引起的免疫应答，以及这种应答的结果，即死亡或存活。该项目的一部分将致力于改进分析方法。由于在感染过程中只有少量血液被重复采样，因此需要新的方法来测量和描述免疫反应。其中包括抗体，专门识别单个免疫分子，鱼类免疫基因的信息以及可以在体外培养的永生鱼类细胞的存在。这些方法将适用于收集的少量血液，并将用于了解哪些血细胞和血清分子在对抗病原体方面是重要的。细胞类型、所涉及的分子、病原体类型和感染的最终结果之间的关系对于预测感染的严重程度、确定要使用的适当的免疫刺激剂和改进现有的鱼疫苗将是非常重要的。