Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

The health of farmed fish in each growing season depends on a suite of factors including local environmentalx000D
conditions, many of which are correlated with water temperature and quality. Water temperature has a strongx000D
influence on other important conditions such as dissolved oxygen, phytoplankton bloom and microbialx000D
biomass, all vitally important for fish health. Aside from water temperature, optimal feeding is critical inx000D
insuring good growth rate, a healthy immune system, and the overall quality of the food product and its marketx000D
desirability. With warming seawater temperature, the aquaculture industry faces an increase in summer gutx000D
syndrome (SGS) in salmon, a condition that leads to poor assimilation of the feed, and reduced growthx000D
efficiency. Cermaq Canada, a world leader in salmon aquaculture, is engaged in reducing SGS in their localx000D
Vancouver Island salmon farms by considering a switch to a high temperature (HT) fish feed that may performx000D
better in high water temperatures. Given the increased financial costs of this new feed, the company is eager tox000D
validate for their specific farming location, that benefits to fish growth and general health outweigh the increasex000D
cost of the HT feed. In their validation, the company has requested the expertise of my laboratory to assess thex000D
differences in the salmon gut microbiome associated with the conventional and novel HT feed. My laboratoryx000D
will provide a detailed characterization of the the fish gut microbiome by Illumina Tag-sequencing of the 16Sx000D
rRNA gene V4-V5 variable region amplicons for both types of feed. A written report to the company willx000D
include the data analysis through the QIIME pipeline, followed by a statistical analysis of the results. Inx000D
addition, we will provide the company with a searchable database of the sequence types (operational taxonomicx000D
units or OTUs) and its associated Master OTU table containing the relative abundance data of these OTUs inx000D
each fish gut sample analysed.