Will use screening-technology for skin cancer on salmon gills

Gill disorders is one of the main health issues in aquaculture within Norway and other countries in the Nordic hemisphere. The reason is often recurring delousing procedures which often result in severe stress inflicted on the fish. At worst, gill disorders can cause death or result in serious welfare issues, such as damage to the tissue.

In a new project titled ‘GillAlert’, coordinated by NORCE, researchers and industry will use a specific camera technology to determine the health of salmon gills.

– The technology is used for screening humans for skin cancer. By using a multi-spectral camera, you can examine properties of the tissue beneath the surface of the skin as an early screening measure for skin cancer. In this project, we will adapt the technology so that it can be used to study the health of salmon gills, says Senior Researcher in NORCE, Simon Menanteau-Ledouble.

A bespoke algorithm

GillAlert’ is funded by the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund (Fiskeri- og havbruksnæringens forskningsfinansiering (FHF)) and will run for two years. The consortium includes NORCE and the companies QuantiDoc, DeepX, and Lerøy Seafood Group ASA. The technology tool is provided by DeepX.

– This new powerful tool will image fish gills using a multi-spectral camera. The resulting images will then be analysed by a bespoke algorithm to quantify blood oxygenation, gill morphology and other markers of gill health and respiratory capacity in the gill tissue such as the mucous layer, Menanteau-Ledouble says.

Assisting fish farmers

The fish will be sampled in a variety of farming environments representative of Norwegian aquaculture, including samples from partner in the project, Lerøy Seafood. In order to validate the multi-spectral camera system as a predictive tool for gill health management, the results will be correlated to the fish health and further performance.

– We want to develop the method so that it can be used as a tool to assist fish farmers in the management of fish welfare. Hopefully, this can contribute to better practices and improved quality of life for farmed fish in Norway and beyond.