The Project
IGNITION intends to go beyond the state-of-the-art through the following specific objectives
Objective 1: ANIMAL WELFARE
Increase the knowledge on the molecular, physiological, and behavioural responses of aquatic farmed animals in the context of climate change. The stress caused by fish handling during vaccination and transport (acute stress) and by rising temperatures and lower salinities due to raining pitfalls (chronic stress) will be studied to understand stress levels and tolerances for different species, aiming to improve animal welfare.
Objective 2: BIOMARKERS DISCOVERY
The biomarkers to profile immune and welfare status of aquatic farmed animals are still scarce and generally require invasive procedures. Through high throughput genomic and proteomic screenings, coupled with machine learning algorithms, we’ll establish new stress and health biomarkers, involved in animal responses to environmental and biological challenges in a context of different nutritional and genetic backgrounds.
Objective 3: FUNCTIONAL FEEDS
Through nutritional immunomodulation, we aim to improve resilience to stress and diseases, thus contributing to an enhanced animal welfare. Also, the use of immune-enhancing animal feeds will minimize the use of polluting chemotherapeutics/antibiotics in aquaculture.
Objective 4: VACCINATION
There is an urgent need to secure animal welfare by approaching new immunization strategies, namely in salmon farming. Novel antigen delivery systems will be investigated to develop improved subunit vaccines able to protect against multiple diseases, resulting in less fish handling, improved fish welfare and lower production costs. In parallel, the synergistic effects of functional feeds in improving immunization efficacy will be assessed, aiming at the design of new protocols for fish health management.
Objective 5: GENOMIC TOOLS & MOLECULAR PHENOTYPING TO IMPROVE ANIMAL WELFARE
Once exposed to stress events, such as pathogen exposure, heat shock, vaccination or tissue damage, each individual animal responds in a different way. We will characterize the genetic component of those responses. The aim is to find the genetic correlation between broad scale phenotypes (e.g. disease resistance or growth) and molecular responses, to raise novel phenotypes more adapted to stressful conditions.
Objective 6: NON-INVASIVE BIOSENSORS & IT TOOLS
We’ll implement novel and non-invasive biosensors (like miRNAs and proteins) to be used in water and mucus samples, to monitor animal health and welfare. Also, disease prediction models will be built to estimate animal’s fate to get infected according to their health condition. The resulting version of the model will be the base of an integrated software tool for health monitoring and accurate planning and management of industrial production of aquatic animals.