A comparison of epidemiological patterns of salmon lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, infections on farmed Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar L., in Norway and Scotland

This paper examines two large national data sets collected over several years and contrasts the patterns of sea lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Krøyer, 1837), infections, the use of treatments and the occurrence of chalimus peaks between Norwegian and Scottish farms. Infection levels in Scotland were significantly higher in general over the period under study. For the chalimus stage group in the first quarter of the year, Norwegian mean abundance stayed below 10 lice per m2 while Scottish means reached 45 lice per m2 of fish skin per m3 of water. Both countries had more chalimus in summer than at other times of year, but in the last 3 months of the year Scottish fish had, on average, two to four times as many chalimus as Norwegian fish. Peaks of chalimus abundance were more frequent in Scotland, particularly in winter, but the most prominent peaks occurred in summer in both countries. In Scotland a marked mid-year build-up of mobile pre-adult and adult stages was seen, and both countries showed a tendency for mobile counts on the second year fish to increase towards the end of the year. Scottish fish carried, on average, three times as many mobile lice per m2 of skin as Norwegian fish in the last 3 months of the year. The difference in lice loads was reflected in the greater use of veterinary medicines on Scottish farms. The higher infection levels in Scotland may be due to shallower and more enclosed water bodies used for farming, smaller and shallower pens, differences in sea water temperatures or in access to appropriate medication. The results highlight the importance of ensuring that effective veterinary medicines are available in the UK for the control of infection

Har norske og skotske lakseoppdrettere forskjellige utfordringer når det gjelder lakselus?

This paper examines two large national data sets collected over several years and contrasts the patterns of sea lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Kroyer, 1837), infections, the use of treatments and the occurrence of chalimus peaks between Norwegian and Scottish farms. Infection levels in Scotland were significantly higher in general over the period under study

Clustering of parasites within cages on Scottish and Norwegian salmon farms: Alternative sampling strategies illustrated using simulation

Within the literature, most discussion of sampling protocols for monitoring aquatic parasites is based on the assumptions of simple random sampling. Recent research has shown that in monitoring parasite abundance on fish farms composed of discrete cages, care must be taken to properly account for the clustering which naturally occurs. This paper illustrates the effect of clustering in the context of monitoring ectoparasitic sea lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus elongatus in salmon farms. The degree of clustering of sea lice infections in fish within cages is measured using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). A wide range of ICC values from sites in Scotland and Norway were estimated for the chalimus and mobile stages of L. salmonis, and for C. elongatus mobiles. The analyses indicate that significant clustering of lice infections within cages occurs across lice species and stages on both Scottish and Norwegian farms. A Monte-Carlo simulation using two sets of data from Scottish farms with ICC values for adult L. salmonis of 0.35 [0.08-0.73, 95% CI] and for adult C. elongatus of 0.39 [0.16-0.69, 95% CI] were used to illustrate the implications of clustering. The protocols simulated reflect those typically used across a range of countries and production environments in which salmon are currently reared. The findings demonstrate that the "few fish from many cages" approach results in a marked improvement in precision when sampling aquatic one-host parasites in cage-based production systems

Forslag til førstegenerasjons målemetode for miljøeffekt (effektindikatorer) med hensyn til genetisk påvirkning fra oppdrettslaks til villaks, og påvirkning av lakselus fra oppdrett på viltlevende laksefiskbestander

Havforskningsinstituttet (HI) har sammen med Veterinærinstituttet (VI) utarbeidet forslag til førstegenerasjons målemetode for miljøeffekt (effektindikatorer) med hensyn til genetisk påvirkning fra oppdrettslaks til villaks, og påvirkning av lakselus fra oppdrett på viltlevende laksefiskbestander. Dette arbeidet baserer seg på gjennomgang av tilgjengelige data fra pågående forskningsprosjekt ved HI og VI, samt tidligere rapporter fra HI, VI, Norsk institutt for naturforskning (NINA) og Vitenskapelig råd for lakseforvaltning (VRL). Fiskeridirektoratet og Mattilsynet har gitt innspill og råd når det gjelder overvåkningsprogram, og NINA har gitt faglige innspil til deler av arbeidet