Salmon Louse

The current salmon lice situation in Norway &
Introducing the Sea Lice Research Centre
Prof Frank Nilsen
University of Bergen

Salmon louse a major problem
• Why is sea lice difficult to control?
• Life cycle properties
– Long lived, reproductive capacity, dispersal stages
– Adapted to low and variable host density
• Increased number of available hosts
• Wild reservoir (i.e. wild salmonids)

But first
a little taste of lice biology

Naupli I hatch from the egg-strings
Naupli I
Dark mature eggs
1 egg = 0.7-0.8 copepodids
Copepodid

Time (days)
Temperature

Post settlement growth of copepodids

Copepodid – chalimus
transition

Stressrelated responce
Visible damage
Secretion
Immunomodulation
Strong immune responce from lice
BUT, does not remove the parasite

Salmon louse on farmed fish:
• Coordinated treatment to obtain low lice levels in May/June
• Based on medicine
Goal: Low lice levels when wild Atlantic salmon smolt migrates
• Infection pressure on wild stocks is monitored
• Limit of lice larvae release not known

Treatment effort

Anti salmon louse drug consumption

Large increase in drug usage

Drug resistance - NORWAY
Large problems related to organophosphates
early/midd 1990
New highly efficient drugs available from 1995
2006/2007 cases with treatment failure
Resistance identified in 2007 (Trøndelag)
2010 resistance occurring from Rogaland to Lofoten,
against 1, 2 or 3 drugs
Limited cost seen in resistant lice strains

Increase in production

Salmon louse and the big numbers
• 1.000.000 salmon in a farm, 0.1 female/fish
• What does that mean?
– 75 copepodids/lice/day
– Produce 7.500.000 copepodids/day
• What if these lice are resistant?
• With few available medicines new tools need
to be developed

Sea Lice Research Centre
4 academic partners:
•University of Bergen (host)
•Norwegian School of Veterinary Sciences
•Institute of Marine Research, Norway
•UNI Research
5 industrial partners:
•Novartis AH
•Ewos Innovation
•Pathogen Analysis
•Marine Harvest
•Lerøy Seafood gr.

What is an SFI?
SFI = Centre for Research based Innovation
One of two “centre funding” from
Norwegian Research Council (NRC)
Selection based on “free competition” between
diverse application
NRC provides 5+3 years of funding
(~10 mill NOKs/year), requires 50% own
funding (> 25% industrial funding)

Sea Lice Research Centre
Research to “develop” new control measures
against sea lice
Main goal:
The Salmon Louse Research Centre aims at becoming world
leading on research on salmon louse and similar parasites.
The nature of the centre will facilitate development of new
methods for lice control and shorten the time from basic
research to new products and tools for parasite control in the
aquaculture sector to achieve a true integrated pest
management in the future.

Broad approach – based on life cycle
4. Immune control (specific)
Adult
III
Preadult
5. RNAi
All stages
II
1. Medicines
3. Immune control (non specific)
Copepodid
I
Chalimus
2. Anti-attachment

WP1
Horsberg
SLRC - Organisation
Board of Directors
Centre Leader (Nilsen)
& project manager
Leader Group
WP-leaders & Centre Leader
WP2
Wadswort
WP3
Evensen
WP4
Male
SAB
Scientific Advisory Board
WP5
Jonassen
WP6
Hamre

WP1 Medicine & Resistancy
WP2 Antiattachment
WP3 Immunomodulering
Research (WP1-WP6)
WP4 Molecular parasitology (new control methods)
WP5 LiceBase (genome recources/integrated database)
WP6 LiceLab (wetlabs, experimental facility)

WP1
Chemotherapeutants
& resistancy
WP3
Immunomodulation
WP5
LiceBase
Salmon louse
Genome sequence
WP2
Anti attachment
WP4
Molecular parasitology
WP6
LiceLab

SLRC based on previous research
• Three examples
• Eichner, C., Frost, P., Dysvik, B., Kristiansen, B., Jonassen, I., Nilsen, F.
(2008). Salmon louse (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) transcriptomes during post
molting maturation and egg production, revealed using EST-sequencing and
microarray analysis. BMC Genomics 9: 126
• Hamre, L., Glover, K. & Nilsen, F. (2009) Establishment and characterisation
of salmon louse (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) laboratory strains. Parasitology
International 58: 451-460
• Dalvin, S., Frost, P. Biering, E., Hamre, L., Eichner, C., Krossøy, B. and Nilsen,
F. (2009) Functional characterisation of the maternal yolk-associated
protein (LsYAP) utilising systemic RNA interference in the salmon louse
(Lepeophtheirus salmonis) (Crustacea: Copepoda). International Journal for
Parasitology, 39: 1407-1413

More knowledge about sea lice
Research and eduacation in:
• Parasitology
• Molecular biology and genomics/functional
genomics
• Pharmacology
• Host-parasite interactions
Salmon louse genome:
Key resource in research and innovation for SLRC
Sequencing ~finished, assembly & annotation
Infrastructure:
LiceBase – database for genome recources, linked to function
LiceLab – wet-labs, experiments

Experimental approach

Established:
• Lab strains
• Inbred strains
• Resistant strains
We can:
• Breed/establish special lice strains
• Fitness studies
• Accurate experiments

Goals
• New medicines and resistance monitoring & control methods (WP 1)
• Anti attachment diets (WP 2)
• Immune controls (specific & non specific) (WP 3, WP 4)
• RNAi gene techniques for research tool and future controls (WP 4)
• In dept knowledge of the molecular biology of growth,
reproduction and endocrine systems in sea lice (WP 4)
• Annotated genome sequence linked into an integrated database
containing experimental data (WP 5, LiceBase)
• Updated microarray and other molecular tools (WP 3, 4, and 5)
• Larval detection and assessment techniques (WP 4)
• Sea lice facility (naïve lice population, challenge facility, etc)
(WP 6, LiceLab)
• Development of true integrated pest management
techniques for industry (Part V)

The consortium
Host: University of Bergen (Department of Biologi),
Department of Molecular Biology, Department of Informatics
Academic partners:
Institute of Marine Research
Norwegian School of Veterinary Sciences
UNI Research
Industripartnarar:
Novartis Animal Health
EWOS Innovation
Patogen Analyse AS
Marine Harvest ASA
Lerøy Seafood Group Director: Prof Frank Nilsen, BIO, UiB

Partner Cost Funding % Funding Cash In Kind
UoB 97 190 31 468 15,6 23 100 8 368
NSVS 44 978 21 300 10,5 16 500 4 800
IMR 29 000 16 000 7,9 0 16 000
Novartis Animal Health 12 000 20 000 9,9 8 000 12 000
EWOS innovation 12 000 18 000 8,9 6 000 12 000
Patogen Analyse AS 4 000 6 000 3,0 2 000 4 000
Marine Harves ASA 2 000 6 400 3,2 4 000 2 400
Lerøy Seafood ASA 800 2 800 1,4 2 000 800
Sum commercial
partners 30 800 53 200 26,3 22 000 31 200
NRC 80 000 39,6 80 000
TOTAL 201 968 201 968 100,0 141 600 60 368
Budget: ~ 25 mill NOKs/year (2.6 million pounds/year)

SFI – “all” lice problmes solved?
• SFI is: 5 + 3 years support – long term
– Evaluation after 3.5 years
• SFI success criteria:
– Research
– Innovation & vallue creation
– International collaboration
– Education
– Partners & funding
– Organization
• No garanty for success (e.g. vaccine development)

• SLRC will provide tools for better sea lice control
• Long term – we can work with “difficult tasks”
• Put together the best people in Norway & International
• The industry is contributing and has an active role
More difficult to be sea lice in the future!