Chilean farmers report improved survival with SRS vaccine
CHILEAN salmon farmers have reported a sharp reduction in mortalities caused by salmon rickettsial septicaemia (SRS) after using Pharmaq’s vaccine LiVac SRS.
The company’s general manager in South America, Guillermo Staudt, said during a recent presentation of the vaccine’s results that it was ‘an essential element for an effective control of SRS’.
During the first full cycle since the launch of the product, there was a drop of between 27 and 85 per cent mortalities, Intrafish reported on November 1.
The vaccines were used by six different companies on 27 farms treating 100 per cent of their fish, and the full cycle at the sites ended with an average mortality rate caused by SRS of 1.45 per cent per farm.
The farmers used an average of 300g of antibiotics per tonne produced at these sites during the cycle, 36 per cent below the average use of antibiotics in Chile in 2017.
‘LiVac SRS has proven a very effective tool, but it has to be used in an environment of high quality smolts, good sanitary conditions and good management of farming centres, a complete strategy for fish health, high quality diets and good anti-parasitic treatments,’ Staudt said.
LiVac, the first attenuated live SRS vaccine, was launched in Puerto Montt 2016 for the Chilean market, following years of research.
SRS is considered to be the most prevalent disease in the Chilean industry. The disease is caused by the bacterium Piscirickettsia salmonis, generating a severe disease that has caused major economic losses in the aquaculture industry since its appearance in 1989.
The disease is known to affect three species of fish, Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout and coho salmon.
Pharmaqademy: Page54