Roslin Institute leads initiative to tackle the big issues in fish health

The team will focus on fish heart and gill health, using detailed studies of the species’ DNA code, genes linked to key traits, and research into the immune system to improve resilience to disease throughout the fish lifecycle.

The team will track hundreds of salmon families across the full production cycle, focusing on key areas, including seeking to understand the diversity of genomes, the impact of early rearing practices and developing novel characteristics to select the most robust fish from the breeding population.

Scientists will investigate how the rearing temperature during early development of fish impacts the link between disease, immunity and response to vaccination. They will also develop novel ways to separately measure disease resistance, tolerance and infectivity as traits for robustness.

The five-year project, involving research on the first dedicated Scottish salmon breeding population, will be bolstered by recruitment of key research posts, bidirectional career development support, and a programme of community engagement to raise awareness of their research among the public.

Dr Nick Wade of the Roslin Institute said: “We seek to advance the fundamental understanding of fish health and robustness at multiple levels across the salmon life cycle, a proposal only possible through such a large-scale partnership with industry.”