Diseases of wild and farmed Finfish

Marine Scotland Science, Aberdeen have an active research programme on pancreas disease (PD), investigating the ‘Understanding the pathogenesis of salmonid alphavirus infection and improving strategies for management ’.  The work is supporting industry in meeting the objective of increased growth of 4% per annum over the next ten years.  

Our research covers the following key areas -

• Use of  an Mx promoter cell line and measurement of  Mx-sensitivity.
• Production of a stable cell line expressing structural proteins.
• Functional studies of infectivity mechanisms using a fluorescent infectious recombinant virus.
• Reviewing the interaction between wild and farmed fish.
• Investigation of infectivity of a virus isolated from flatfish to salmon.
• Use of novel technologies to examine infection in vitro using a heart model.
• Determining salmonid alphavirus non-structural protein 2 (NSP2) localisation.
• Collaborating with industry to examine reasons for failure or recovery of runt fish. 
• Implement an economic model for PD in relation to spread between farms, including cage to cage variation.
• Extending our understanding of differential virulence among isolates.
• Developing and validation of a seroconversion test. 

See also:

Salmonid alphavirus (SAV)