Marine Harvest has been working together with PatoGen for the last two years on the project and are now seeking to validate a new genetic tool called LiceAdvisor, for medicine sensitivity monitoring in Caligus rogercresseyi, a common parasite in Chilean waters, in order to optimise treatments.
“This collaboration has been vital for the expansion of our services to Chile,” says Vidar Aspehaug, chief of business development and cofounder of PatoGen. “As a result, we have now established an office in Puerto Varas, and will be able to support the Chilean industry with new tools to optimise smoltification and Caligus control.”
Over the years the two companies have worked closely on a number of projects, related to both the use of genetic tools to improve fish health and welfare and R&D.
“Our initial focus has been to contribute to the calibration of SmoltTimer [a means of establishing when best to transfer juvenile salmon to sea] for use in Chile and on implementing this new tool in our freshwater sites in Chile. We are very satisfied with using this tool to optimize smolt production, smolt quality and time of transfer of smolt groups to sea,” says Jorge Mancilla, fish health & nutrition manager at Marine Harvest Chile.
“We’ve had a very fruitful relationship with PatoGen the last 13 years. I believe that facilitating the introduction of new technologies to Chile is an important contribution to further development of the industry,” says Gordon Ritchie, group manager fish health & welfare at Marine Harvest ASA.
SmoltTimer and LiceAdvisor will shortly be made available to other Chilean fish farming companies through PatoGen Chile in collaboration with ADL.
