Biology Biotech
The viability of aquaculture – the artificial rearing of fish – is threatened by parasites that can cause illness and mortality. Worryingly, due to the consequent need for antibiotic treatments in these environments, some bacteria may eventually become resistant, a problem already threatening treatment of human infections. As an alternative solution, scientists are examining the viability of deploying viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria, known as phages
Employing phages to treat bacterial infections in aquaculture
Aquaculture offers a sustainable, ethical alternative to catching fish in the wild, where stocks are widely threatened by overfishing. However, although an artificial environment may spare them some of the hazards posed by natural predation, farmed fish face other dangers which may be no less fatal, perhaps the most significant of which is disease. The coexistence of large volumes of fish in unnatural proximity creates conditions in which infections can arise, thrive and rapidly spread. Although it is possible to mitigate against these illnesses through good hygiene, effective disease management and treatments, the general emergence of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria suggests that, in the long term, more effective methods are needed. “Fish pathogens are a problem in fish
farming worldwide,” says Lotta-Riina Sundberg. “New diseases have actually emerged throughout the industry, which, because they are unprecedented, could not be prevented.” Within Finland’s borders,
aquaculture is a significant commercial
concern, with official statistics stating that, in 2012, some 322 Finnish fish farming enterprises produced stock worth some €44.6m. Fortunately, Dr. Sundberg, in her role as an Academy researcher in the Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, is
allowed her to develop expertise that has informed her novel response to the practical challenges facing the fish farming industry. Flavobacterium columnare, the pathogen
of the aquatic livestock that Sundberg’s team studies, often causes a condition known as columnaris to manifest in the fish. Because it transmits most effectively from dead fish,
“Using fish to trial different types of phages is very helpful, since this allows us to find efficient ways of preventing columnaris infections, as well as establishing what the virulent properties of the bacteria are”
developing new strategies to meet this challenge. Within the University of Jyväskylä, her specialised research interests include
host-pathogen interactions,
bacterial social relationships and the evolution of pathogenicity, which have
and can also survive for at least five months in water without a host,
this particular
parasite poses a significant threat to aquaculture worldwide. Amongst the species it can occupy are salmonids, rainbow trout, whitefish, pikeperch and catfish.
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