Project description
Innovative aquaculture tools for disease prevention
Improving animal welfare in European aquaculture by reducing the use of veterinary drugs is necessary to minimise the industry’s environmental impact. Disease prevention and reduced disease impact are pivotal for producers, researchers and stakeholders. The EU-funded IGNITION project will provide new knowledge on animal welfare through genotyping and molecular phenotyping techniques to develop future breeding strategies for fish and shellfish. The project will also propose innovative tools to mitigate the adverse effects of stress regarding immunization in fish to improve fish welfare and target early life stages. IGNITION will study and discover new non-invasive biomarkers of health and welfare to develop biosensors and disease prediction through machine-learning approaches.
Objective
Animal health and welfare are issues of high research priority for European aquaculture. In particular, improving animal welfare whilst reducing the use of veterinary drugs are current research priorities in line with minimizing the environmental impact of the industry. Preventing, or reducing the impact of disease is of prime importance for producers, researchers and stakeholders. In addition, public awareness of aquatic animal health and welfare leads to the increased attention of policy-makers, scientific community and the consumers into new methods for disease prevention.
The IGNITION project aims to unveil new knowledge regarding animal welfare in the context of climate change and propose new tools to mitigate the adverse effects of stress. An improvement in animal welfare will translate in higher-quality farmed animals thus improving farming productivity and sustainability performance. Through IGNITION it is expected to provide new knowledge through genotyping and molecular phenotyping techniques to develop future breeding strategies for fish and shellfish. New innovative tools regarding immunization in fish will also be provided, aiming at improving fish welfare and targeting early life stages. Animal feeds will be formulated to include bioactive compounds extracted from halophytes through a novel upstream cascade salt removal. Special emphasis will be given to the study and discovery of new non-invasive biomarkers of health and welfare, which will in turn allow the development of biosensors and disease prediction through machine learning approaches. The tools developed in IGNITION will be able to avoid the colonization and spread of pathogenic microorganisms, including multi-resistant microorganisms, among farmed animals and the subsequent spread to humans through the food chain.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineimmunologyimmunisation
- agricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedomestic animalsanimal husbandry
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiology
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
4450 208 Matosinhos
Portugal