Assessing bacterial kidney disease resistance in a commercial Atlantic salmon strain

The aim of this project is to determine which families are resistant to bacterial kidney disease, a bacterial infection that affects both wild and farmed Atlantic salmon. To do this many families of Atlantic salmon from a commercial aquaculture company are to be purposefully infected with the bacteria that causes the disease to establish which families have a high rate of survival and which have a low rate of survival. This is called a disease challenge, and is performed under controlled conditions to control environmental variation, increasing the detection of genetic variation of BKD survival. Knowing how each family performs in the challenge will enable the company to make breeding decisions such that families that performed well will be selected to pass their genetic superiority onto the next generation of Atlantic salmon, hopefully reducing the occurrence of BKD at production sea cage sites.

Faculty Supervisor:

Elizabeth Boulding

Student:

Melissa Holborn

Partner:

Cooke Aquaculture Corp.

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Fisheries and wildlife

University:

Program: