Fish need shots too! The importance of animal health and novel vaccine research in aquaculture

Atlantic Salmon and Maine’s renewable wood pulp industry may sound like an unlikely duo at first, but Deborah Bouchard and Sarah Turner from the Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI) have recognized the potential this pairing could have for the future of environmental, economic, and social sustainability for the US aquaculture industry. Debbie and Sarah Bouchard are to researching a new generation of safer, more sustainable, and cheaper vaccines for finfish. Here is where Atlantic Salmon meets its unlikely match, wood pulp. This abundant polymer is biocompatible, biodegradable, quite versatile, and easily modified – making it a phenomenal candidate for drug delivery. Tune in to learn more and hear about their results so far! and Vibrio ordalii. This adjuvant, a component of vaccines to improve and prolong immuneresponse, showed no evidence of cellular damage and no effects on growth for the fish whileinducing a strong immune and antibody boosting response. With less side effects and cheaper tomanufacture than existing vaccines these preliminary results are exciting, highlighting the efficacyof nanocellulose adjuvants. ISAv and V. ordalii alone can cause farmers to lose 90% of their stocks, amounting to over $1billion annually. Development of this new, safe, and affordable vaccine using nanocellulose is notonly huge for Atlantic salmon farmers but other food production systems as well. This newgeneration of low cost, tunable vaccine formulation is paving a way toward more sustainableaquaculture, with potential applicability for other fish species and even terrestrial animals as well. Leveraging direct industry support from Cooke Aquaculture, Kennebec River Biosciences,Benchmark Animal Health LTD, this interdisciplinary team from UMaine’s Aquaculture ResearchInstitute and the Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Department has immense experience andresources relating to fish health, immunobiology, and vaccine formulation. Results will be shareddirectly through ARI’s web site, Cooperative Extension and Maine Sea Grant extensionprofessionals, national conferences, and peer-reviewed publications.