SLICEnce: Understanding sea lice population sensitivity to SLICE treatment

SLICEnce：了解海虱种群对 SLICE 治疗的敏感性

• 批准号: 576943-2022
• 负责人: Fast, MarkMD
• 金额: $ 3.1万
• 依托单位: University of Prince Edward Island
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=761965
• 关键词: SLICEnce; Understanding; sea; lice; population

Canadian salmon production is the fourth largest farmed salmon industry in the world. Farmed salmon is British Columbia's (BC) largest agri-food export with a total economic output of $1.6 billion annually, approximately 6,500 jobs and represents 60% of total production in Canada. This project represents a collaboration between partners that have been heavily committed to the Canadian aquaculture industry for decades, including an academic institution (UPEI/AVC), a non-for-profit organization (BC CAHS), a pharmaceutical company (MERCK), and salmon producers (Grieg, Cermaq and Mowi). Sea lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, is an ectoparasite that commonly infects wild and farmed salmonids. The parasite impacts salmon production by limiting their growth, increasing their susceptibility to secondary infections and continued costs of treatment. The average loss of biomass growth has been estimated between 3.62 and 16.55% (Abolofia et a., 2017), and when combined with costs of treatment, results in an estimated US$436M loss annually in Norway. In Canada, only one anti-parasitic compound is licensed for use in salmon to treat sea lice infection, emamectin benzoate (EMB, SLICE ®), sold by Merck Animal Health. Since 2006, reduced efficacy of EMB has been observed throughout the North Atlantic, with large-scale failures occurring by 2009 (Aean et al., 2015), in all farming regions with the exception of Pacific North America. Recently we were able to identify a specific louse genotype associated with reduced efficacy and treatment failures of EMB (Messmer et al, 2018). This problem has spread and cases of decreasing treatment efficacy from EMB are more common in BC. Currently, mitigation strategies to track the level of susceptibility and tolerance of sea lice populations rely on live lice collections and subsequent bioassay data. However, bioassays require a high number of sea lice and the process is labor-intensive and time-consuming with many logistical challenges. The predicted outcome of this project is to develop a rapid-PCR based diagnostic assay capable of identifying sea lice sub-populations susceptible and tolerant to EMB, which can be used on both coasts of Canada to inform treatment decisions.

加拿大鲑鱼生产是世界上第四大养殖鲑鱼产业。养殖鲑鱼是不列颠哥伦比亚省（BC）最大的农产品出口，每年的经济总产值为16亿美元，约有6500个就业岗位，占加拿大总产量的60%。该项目代表了数十年来一直致力于加拿大水产养殖业的合作伙伴之间的合作，包括一个学术机构（UPEI/AVC）、一个非营利组织（BC CAHS）、一家制药公司（MERCK）和鲑鱼生产商（Grieg、Cermaq和Mowi）。海虱，鲑科Lepeophtheirus salmonis，是一种通常感染野生和养殖鲑科的外寄生虫。这种寄生虫通过限制鲑鱼的生长，增加它们对继发性感染的易感性和持续的治疗成本来影响鲑鱼的生产。据估计，生物质增长的平均损失在3.62%至16.55%之间（Abolofia等人，2017年），加上处理费用，挪威每年的损失估计为4.36亿美元。在加拿大，只有一种抗寄生虫化合物被许可用于鲑鱼治疗海虱感染，即emamectin benzoate （EMB, SLICE®），由默克动物保健公司销售。自2006年以来，整个北大西洋都观察到EMB的效果下降，到2009年，除北美太平洋地区外，所有农业地区都出现了大规模的失败（Aean等，2015年）。最近，我们能够确定与EMB疗效降低和治疗失败相关的特定虱子基因型（Messmer等人，2018）。这个问题已经蔓延开来，EMB治疗效果下降的病例在不列颠哥伦比亚省更为常见。目前，追踪海虱种群易感性和耐受性水平的缓解策略依赖于活虱收集和随后的生物测定数据。然而，生物分析需要大量的海虱，而且这个过程是劳动密集型的，耗时的，有许多后勤方面的挑战。该项目的预期结果是开发一种基于快速pcr的诊断方法，能够识别对EMB敏感和耐受的海虱亚群，这可以在加拿大的两个海岸使用，为治疗决策提供信息。