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AQUACULTUREErika EliasonGiving Salmon a Workout ReapsPrestigious AccoladesErika Eliason first met Professor Tony Farrell at Simon Fraser Universityin 2003 when she was an undergraduate student. She worked on herMasters degree under his guidance and in 2004, when Prof. Farrelljoined UBC, Eliason followed.“Prof. Farrell is very supportive and his priority is always his students,”she said. “With his encouragement, I’ve had the opportunity toconduct research in Norway and England, to attend conferences andmake new contacts. He’s really given me the tools to succeed.”Those tools come in handy as Eliason works on her PhD research, theimpact of global warming on sockeye salmon migration.“Fraser River has increased by two degrees in temperature over thepast 50 years and a lot of fish are dying en route to the spawningground,” she said.A PhD student, Eliason has won many awards, including the BestStudent Oral Presentation for Research (International Congress onthe Biology of Fish, 2010) , the Hoar Award for Research (Best StudentPresentation, Canadian Society of Zoologists Annual General Meeting,2010) and a UBC Four Year Fellowship for PhD Students (2009).Beaverton MedalProfessor Tony Farrell received the Beaverton Medal from the FisheriesSociety of the British Isles in July 2010. The Beaverton medal isawarded to a distinguished scientist for a lifelong contribution to allaspects of study of fish biology and/or fisheries science, with a focuson ground-breaking research.As part of her thesis, she is comparing the athleticism of populationsof sockeye salmon.“There are more than 100 genetically distinct populations in theFraser Valley watershed,” she said. “We hypothesize that each sockeyepopulation has adapted through natural selection to meet theirunique environmental challenges of upstream migration for a once-ina-lifetimespawning event.”Eliason is also studying the mechanism of cardiorespiratory collapseat high temperature in salmon. She tests the fish with two massiveswim tunnels at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans field stationin Cultus Lake, BC.“We intercept migrating adult salmon as they start going up river andbring them to these swim tunnels, which are aquatic treadmills for fish.The swim tunnel encourages them to swim faster, so we can measuretheir heart rate, cardiac output and oxygen consumption when theyare swimming flat out.”16 Faculty of Land and Food Systems Annual Report 2009 | 2010
AVIAN RESEARCHCENTREJune KimMasoumeh BejaeiFat Is Beautiful“My research is bucking the trend,” said Dr. June Kim, ResearchAssociate, Avian Research Centre. “While most people arelooking for a way to reduce fat, I’m trying to find out how toincrease fat deposition.”Working with Dr. Kim Cheng, Director of the Avian Research Centre,June is conducting research to see what gene action is affecting themetabolism and deposition of fat in emu. Emus are raised for theirfat, which is used to make oils for a variety of different products,including skin cream, lip balm and cosmetics. Researchers at theAvian Research Centre recently found that emu oil has good antioxidantand anti-inflammatory properties and also contains factorsthat facilitate cell growth.“Once we discover what genes are involved, we can develop geneticmarkers to help detect which emus can produce more fat and usethem for breeding,” she said. “The trick is to increase the amount offat without altering the fatty acids profile and other ingredients thatmake the oil’s efficacy.”Four times a year, June travels to Saskatchewan to the biggestemu farm in Canada to collect samples of fat tissue fromthe back of the birds.“Certain gene expressions are turned on and off depending on thetime of year, so it’s really important that we collect samples before,during, and after the birds put on fat,” she added.Originally from South Korea, June completed her PhD in AnimalScience at UBC in 2007. After a post-doc fellowship at Utah StateUniversity, she returned to the Avian Research Centre in 2010 to workon this project, which is funded by the BC Ministry of Agriculture andLands via the UBC Specialty Birds Research Committee.All Eggs Created Equal?Masoumeh Bejaei can tell a lot about you from the type of egg youprefer. Like, for instance, your level of education or the size of yourhousehold. “There is a relationship between the characteristics ofconsumers and the kind of table egg they select,” said Bejaei, anAnimal Science PhD student.Originally from Tabriz, Iran, Bejaei has two Masters degrees: MSc,Poultry Nutrition, University of Tehran (2004) and an MSc, AnimalScience, University of British Columbia (2009). Combining herknowledge of science, social science and market research, herresearch project focused on identifying preferences, attitudes anddemographic characteristics of BC egg consumers.“Consumers with higher education and higher income are moreinterested in organic eggs or cage-free eggs. Price is less important tothem than environmental or animal welfare issues,” she said. “Thosewith bigger households, lower income or lower education, however,are more concerned with price and tend to purchase regular eggs.”Bejaei sent an online survey to 1027 randomly selected people acrossthe province. More than 700 people, all BC residents over 19 years ofage, completed the survey, a response rate of 68%.The project, which was funded by the UBC Specialty Birds ResearchCommittee, also demonstrated that the proportion of BC consumerspurchasing these specialty eggs is much higher thanpreviously reported.“Up until a few years ago, there were only two types of eggs onthe market: brown and white. The market was transformed by theintroduction of specialty eggs,” she added. “This research data couldbe used to help plan the future of production proportion of differenttypes of eggs in BC.”In July 2010, Bejaei won a Certificate of Excellence at the PoultryScience Association Annual General Meeting in Denver. Her results willbe published in the Poultry Science Journal in 2011.Faculty of Land and Food Systems Annual Report 2009 | 2010 17
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