SustainAble Farming for Effective Aquaculture

Project Information

SAFE-Aqua

Grant agreement ID: 734486

DOI

10.3030/734486

Project closed

EC signature date 18 November 2016

Start date 1 January 2017

End date 31 December 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 900 000,00

EU contribution

€ 900 000,00

Coordinated by

INSTITUT PASTEUR
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SAFE-Aqua (SustainAble Farming for Effective Aquaculture)

Reporting period: 2019-01-01 to 2020-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Aquaculture is an important food source for the world’s growing population. The increasing demand and productivity of aquaculture leads to global trade in breeding stock, genetic material and aquaculture products for human consumption, but also exacerbates the globalization of pathogens. SAFE-Aqua, an international, inter- and multidisciplinary consortium, aims to provide scientific solutions to solve disease-related issues in aquaculture using shrimp as a model through research and innovation staff exchange and sharing of knowledge and ideas from research to market.
SAFE-Aqua's objectives were to explore the benefits of developed feed additives on keeping a healthy gut microbial balance, enhancing immune-capacity and maintaining nutritional integrity of shrimp as a product. To assess these beneficial effects, SAFE-Aqua synergized the cutting-edge technology platforms, multidisciplinary and complementary expertise, as well as infrastructure from networks of the partnership among the leading research institutes in France, UK and Thailand and a synthetic biology company in Spain. During the project, a new partner Wageningen university has been included in our consortium with the aim of increasing the bioinformatics capacity of the group. The outcomes of SAFE-Aqua will undoubtedly help improve competitiveness of EU aquaculture industry, employing around 80,000 people and whose growth has been relatively constant since 2000 compared to aquaculture production worldwide. The project, by providing an alternative to chemical treatments for diseases in aquaculture, also aims at making farm environment safer and improving food security.
Moreover, SAFE-Aqua promoted international and inter-sector collaboration through research and innovation staff exchanges and sharing of knowledge and ideas from research to market. The use of cutting-edge innovative technologies allowed researchers to develop new skill sets helping them to develop their careers in the best way. In addition, administrative staff implicated in the project management also greatly benefitted from the knowledge exchange and built further collaborations.

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

To address the challenges for aquaculture industry, SAFE-Aqua aims to provide scientific solutions to disease-related issues in aquaculture using shrimp as a model through research and innovation staff exchange and sharing of knowledge and ideas from farm to fork. In this project, several approaches were explored: providing fundamental knowledge about the animal through its genome, finding correlation between shrimp health and gut microbiota, and studying shrimp immunome to fight diseases and retain high nutritional value for consumers.
Up to now, the genome sequencing for the model shrimp is being performed after numerous efforts to overcome the challenges from the nature of shrimp DNA and the immature development of certain next-generation sequencing platforms. The bioinformatics pipelines for the genome and transcriptome analysis are ready to tackle to data once available.
To investigate correlation between shrimp health and gut microbiota, several culture conditions were studied. For instance, salinity effects on microbiota were investigated and the bacterial profiles were compared in time-course manner.
In addition, various omics platforms including metagenomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics to understand host-microbe interaction were employed to understand the relationship between shrimp host and microbes. Transcriptomic profiles in shrimp intestines were subjected for RNAseq using Illumina sequencing platform. The methods for metabolite extraction from shrimp tissues and detection of target quorum-sensing molecules (using LC Orbitrap Fusion mass spectrometer) were established. Subsequently, these omics data will be integrated to understand the holistic relationship between shrimp and microbes.
These scientific data together will light the ways to find alternative methods for improving shrimp farming through better farming practice or feed formulations.
A symposium highlighting the achievements of SAFE-Aquas was held as as a part of “the ASEAN Innovation Roadmap & Bioeconomy Forum in Conjunction with Global Bioeconomy Submit 2020” Bangkok, Thailand, held on 16-20 November 2020.

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)

1. Contribution of the project to the improvement of the research and innovation potential within Europe and/or worldwide
SAFE-Aqua aims to transfer data obtained to fundamental and applied knowledge, which ultimately will translate to practice for all stakeholders. At Swansea, Dr. Coates and Prof. Rowley have close links with a number of aquaculture-related industries and stakeholders, examples include: the Shellfish Association of Great Britain, SEAFISH UK, Young’s Seafood and Xyrex Ltd. (focused on extending shrimp shelf-life and preventing microbial contamination) and Intervet/Schering-Plough (animal vaccine development).
In addition, we believe that SAFE-Aqua is important for the Horizon2020 Research program(Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy Program) as well as European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) to address the EU's maritime and fisheries policies for 2014-2020.In addition to the improvement of the research and innovation, the outcomes of SAFE-Aqua will increase EU competitiveness in aquaculture as well as improve sustainability of this industry worldwide. Aquaculture in Europe alone accounts for about 20% of fish production and directly employs some 80,000 people. The growth and sustainability of this industry is undoubtedly crucial to the societal impact.
Ultimately, SAFE-Aqua will contribute to the EU integrated approach to food safety assuring “a high level of food safety, animal health, and animal welfare” through coherent ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy [46] by engaging in research that will ultimately benefit the public and enhance scientific capacity of aquaculture related research.

2. Quality of the proposed measures to exploit and disseminate the project results
• SAFE-Aqua will act as a moderator who links all the stakeholders involved in the aquaculture community to ensure that established knowledge, technology and the verified products will be transferred and fully exploited.
• A project web portal will function as a data hub of all products from the project (e.g. data, protocols, knowledge, documentation, etc.) for members’ accessibility. The website will also link to important funding sources such as European Commission website of Horizon 2020 to raise awareness for the consortium to apply for future funding together for sustainable collaboration.
To effectively spread the research results, different approaches will be used to reach different identified targets

graphic overview of Safe-Aqua project