Biological challenges
Industry-research partnerships are the way forward when it comes to tackling biological challenges
The Sco sh salmon industry has successfully overcome a number of biological challenges in recent years, by using di erent tools and strategies, including hydrogen peroxide treatments in full enclosure tarpaulins.
Its significant investment in specialist e uipment and associated training has supported the proactive fish health monitoring regimes undertaken by all companies, the results of which are coordinated to excellent e ect by the Sco sh Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO).
When an entire industry has made such e ective progress over a short space of time, it is sometimes di cult for busy farmers to keep the momentum of innovation going beyond a certain level of achievement.
Once a level of operational competence can be routinely achieved, one that consistently delivers the specified results, the understandable temptation for the salmon farmer is to turn their attention back to managing other key issues.
That is when their key suppliers need to step up to the mark and ensure that developments continue.
A ua Pharma is the international distributor for Solvay s veterinary grade hydrogen peroxide, Paramove. The primary focus of its Sco sh subsidiary, based in Inverness, has been to ensure Paramove availability to all customers in Scotland and Shetland, even during sustained periods of unexpectedly high demand.
Impressive as that achievement is, its customers understandably re uire more than that. Three years ago, A ua Pharma funded the formation of its sister company Hygiene Teknikk in Oban to ensure the development of delivery, dosing and monitoring e uipment for Paramove treatments that are appropriate to Sco sh farming conditions.
Both A ua Pharma and Hygiene Teknikk are part of the Norwegian based A uatic Concept Group, and their small teams of specialists work in partnership to deliver customer re uirements.
It is not always possible for specialists in small companies to undertake time consuming fieldwork and so earlier this year, following the suggestion of the SSPO s Iain Berrill, we approached the University of Stirling to ask if any MSc students were interested in studying dispersal in treatment tarpaulins.
The Institute of A uaculture s Professor Jimmy Turnbull consulted with Dr Trevor Telfer, and together they reviewed this opportunity with Pietro Allasia and Mario Guarracino, both ualified veterinary surgeons currently attending the MSc A uatic seterinary Studies course. A ua Pharma funded their travel to the Gill Health Initiative s meeting in Galway, Ireland, to help brief them on the operational status of the industry.
At our Oban workshop, Hygiene Teknikk build hydrogen peroxide dose units in 10 shipping containers, which are connected by a manifold to ISO tanks containing Paramove. Adopting this modular approach allows trained crews to safely install and remove treatment capability in a matter of hours, and this exibility permits Sco sh salmon farmers to e ciently operate multi-purpose support vessels. Such operational excellence appears easy to achieve, although in reality it isn t.
Included within these 10 shipping containers are all the safety items re uired for hydrogen peroxide treatments, together with the controlled dosing systems to connect to the customer s preferred dilution and dispersal mechanism within their tarpaulins.
Our latest dose containers have a 500 litre stainless steel tank c w mixer to assist the dilution and dispersal of the other therapeutant compounds available to the prescribing veterinarian, such as Salmosan supplied by the Fish set Group, and Alphamax supplied by Pharma .
A uatic s philosophy is to work with other suppliers to deliver a better, more integrated, service to our joint customer, the salmon farmer, than we can do alone. These informal partnerships are delivering additional value to the modern salmon farming industry, and our sponsored research is similarly intended to assist other suppliers.
A recent additional item within our dose containers is a 10-point water sampler, which allows titrations to be timeously and simultaneously taken from each of 10 sectors within the tarpaulin. Bringing sample water back
from the tarpaulin to the work bench within the Tose container facilitates rapiT anT accurate titrations by skilled practitioners. There are a number of these containers out on Sco sh and Shetland vessels.
During the period from June to early last monthH Mario anT Pietro workeT on sites owned by three large Scotland and Shetland customers who were using the 10-point water sampler. They monitored 72 cage treatments and titrated 1,768 sample points at 0, 6 and 12 minutes a er the prescribed Paramove dose was added.
Statistical analysis of their data sets is currently being undertaken and the findings will be presented to industry at the Pharma conference being held in Inverness in early November. Additional research opportunities will become self-evident both during the presentation and in the subse uent discussion among veterinarians and fish health biologists.
The placement of any student within the modern Sco sh salmon farming industry re uires thorough preparation to ensure all aspects are satisfactorily and safely addressed prior to the commencement of field studies. All the parties involved in this project experienced a significant amount of learning, and the SSPO is actively helping to ensure that our lessons are passeT to other boTies interesteT in similar work placements with SSPO members.
This is very timely, since the Sco sh A uaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC)- a welcome initiative to promote industry and scientific interaction within Scotland- has recently gained full funding for 25 new taught Masters places in a uaculture and marine engineering within Scotland. These Masters courses, at the universities of Stirling and Dundee, will focus on industry relevant knowledge and skills under the SAIC Scholars Connect Plus programme.
By providing business focused training to a uaculture students in Scotland, these placements help to develop the industry and also boost graduates employment prospects. Developing young people throughout the supply chain is also key to our industry s future success.
Every supplier needs to deliver value to remain in business and for our team of young local technicians in Oban it was very heartening to hear a major customer’s purchasing manager Teclare how impresseT he was with the value engineering he haT witnesseT Turing his visit in late July. Such encouragement provides an incentive to any supply partner to continue with innovative design and to pursue new developments.
“Our philosophy is to work with other suppliers to deliver a better service to the salmon farmer than alone” we can To