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Control with sea lice infestation is an important and highly prioritized activity in salmonid aquaculture. To succeed, different strategies are employed, such as bath treatments, feed medication and using cleaner fish (wrasse) as a biological treatment. A new approach in combating the parasite is to increase the innate resistance of the fish to lice infestation.

In collaboration with The Institute of Marine Research (IMR) in Bergen Aqua Gen is running the research project Atlantic salmon genes influencing resistance to salmon lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis). In the summer 2003 fish fr

om 30 full-sib families were put in a sea cage and when the lice infestation had reached a certain level, the fish was killed and frozen in plastic bags and transported to IMR’s laboratory in Bergen. Here fish length, weight, surface area, sex and maturity status are determined. These data will be used to compute how much of the variation in lice infestation is genetically determined (heritability) and possible correlation to other traits. In Bergena laboratory experiment is performed to study if individual and family variations in repeated challenge experiments are reproduced. The project also includes an investigation of possible linkage between resistance against lice infestation and genes that control important immune mechanisms (Major Histocompatibility Complex, MHC). If such linkages can be identified, selection for resistance against sea lice can be facilitated by means of so-called marker assisted selection (MAS). The project is partly funded by The Research Council of Norway.