Recipient Organization
Pacific Aquaculture
3378 Columbia River Road
Nespelem,WA 99155
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
(N/A)
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
80%
Applied
20%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The objectives of this project are to: 1) identify potential pathogens associated with disease losses at Pacific Aquaculture and characterize their virulence properties; 2) develop autogenous vaccines against the most significant of the pathogens identified; 3) develop assays for the rapid diagnosis of diseases pertinent to Pacific Aquaculture and; 4) perform on farm validation of autogenous vaccines.
Project Methods
Pathogens will be initially identified using 16S sequencing and virulence will be determined in triploid rainbow trout using laboratory challenge models. Select pathogens will be further characterized by genome sequencing and sequencing data will be used to identify targets for development of PCR-based diagnostic assays. Candidate vaccines will be tested under laboratory conditions and, if successful, will be produced by a commercial manufacturer and tested under field conditions. Attempts will be made to correlate vaccine-induced protection to a humoral immune response in order to establish correlates of protection that can be used to predict vaccine efficacy in the field.