Curing EU aquaculture by co-creating health and welfare innovations

Project Information

Cure4Aqua

Grant agreement ID: 101084204

DOI

10.3030/101084204

EC signature date 13 October 2022

Start date 1 November 2022

End date 30 April 2027

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 4 830 623,76

EU contribution

€ 4 830 613,75

Coordinated by

BIOLOGICKE CENTRUM AV CR VVI
Czechia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Cure4Aqua (Curing EU aquaculture by co-creating health and welfare innovations)

Reporting period: 2024-05-01 to 2025-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food-producing sectors, where the innovation has been driving improvements in the efficiency, competitiveness, and overall sustainability. However, the efficient and cost-effective control of pathogens is among the main challenges for European aquaculture, which is further complicated by the unpredictable effects of threats like climate change and antimicrobial resistance. Cure4Aqua strives to actively engage key stakeholders to jointly improve the resilience of EU aquaculture under environmental, biological and socio-economic stress, setting the framework for a holistic co-development and evaluation of the solutions it will develop. These solutions include: i) the develop of cost-effective vaccines to prevent bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases of economic significance to EU aquaculture; ii) identify epigenetic and microbiome markers to be integrated to selective breeding programs to improve stress and disease management through epigenetic and microbiome conditioning; iii) alleviate the pressure of global antimicrobial resistance by developing bio-based and sustainable solutions as an alternative to antibiotics; iv) develop new tools and technology to improve health and welfare monitoring at the fish farm level, and diagnostics; v) set the fish welfare at the foreground of aquaculture production, through the development of high welfare standards; and lastly vi) ensure effective external communication, dissemination and exploitation of project activities and results to all relevant target groups.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the reporting period, Cure4Aqua made substantial progress across its scientific and technical work packages. Experimental studies advanced understanding of how farming conditions, environmental stressors, and disease pressure affect fish health, welfare, and growth. This work was supported by molecular, microbiological, and phenotypic analyses across multiple species and production stages.

Key achievements include progress in the development of innovative vaccines and alternative disease control strategies, advances in non-invasive diagnostic approaches, and the establishment of digital monitoring systems combining environmental data, imaging, and artificial intelligence. These tools aim to support earlier detection of health and welfare risks at farm level.

A major milestone was achieved in fish welfare research through the co-development and validation of Operational Welfare Indicators for European sea bass, gilthead sea bream, and common carp. These indicators were developed through structured expert consultation involving a broad range of stakeholders from across Europe. Building on this, work progressed on a Quality of Life (QoL) scaling system and on digital welfare assessment tools, linking scientific evidence with operational decision-making. Biosecurity assessment tools were also developed to integrate welfare, health, and risk management.

In parallel, Cure4Aqua delivered targeted training activities for veterinarians, farm staff, and students, contributing to capacity building and professional development within the aquaculture sector.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Cure4Aqua will push beyond the state of the art by: i) co-creating key success indicators to obtain metrics for assessing the progress achieved by Cure4Aqua; ii) concluding the first multiple-criteria decision-making diseases prioritization and develop the 1st Burden of Disease analysis to form comprehensive simulation models that can be used directly at the level of fish farm operations; iii) designing and optimizing a new approach (patholomics) that combines histopathology, dual transcriptomic and metagenomic data to characterize the disease entity; iv) using approach based on whole genome sequencing, transcriptomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and AI for strain selection, antigen identification and immunogenic epitope prediction to develop novel vaccines; v) identifying biomarkers, linking epigenetics (omics) and microbiome to rearing conditions, disease outbreaks and stress; vi) enriching live and commercial fish feeds with probiotics and anti-Vibrio and -Flavobacterium psychrophilum phages to allow stronger synergistic colonisation during the early fish rearing stage; vii) testing of the bactericidial activity of nanoencapsulated antimicrobial peptides under bacterial challenge; viii) applying a passive immunisation by a hagfish NNV-specific VLRB rAb as a proof of concept; ix) adapting a new monitoring systems for exterior skin/fin/eye/operculum conditions, and combining environmental data, growth data, physio-chemical parameters and behavioural indicators for predictive model using AI approaches; x) using non-invasive reproductive and stress hormone monitoring to monitor broodstock health and welfare; xi) using aptamers to develop new markers for pathogens and fish immune markers, developing bioprint-based culture and infection systems, and new dg. tools (high throughput flow-based multiplexing methods and qPCR on-chip); xii) bringing a range of scientific disciplines and socio-economic approaches to develop novel tools for assessing fish welfare.

Cure4Aqua approach