Bacteriophage Biocontrol for Norwegian Aquaculture: Initial Studies

The National Veterinary Institute (NVI) has for several years now, through various avenues, attempted to obtain funding for study of specific bacteriophage therapy as an alternative to antibiotic treatment/prophylaxis in aquaculture. Funding for a reasona bly extensive project has not been obtained despite generally positive scientific reviews. Rather than drop what we consider to be a very interesting and promising are of research, we have decided within NVI to initiate preliminary bacteriophage studies u sing our own (limited) financial resources, thus hopefully developing a foundation of basic results upon which larger future research project applications may be based. As there is no bacteriophage expertise in Norway at the current time, we propose to host an American expert in the field of bacteriophage therapy, Dr Tim Welch at our laboratories at NVI, Oslo and at the Institute for Marine Research (IMR), Bergen, for a total period of 10 weeks during which time he will establish phage collection, husba ndry and storage techniques as well as planning characterisation and specificity trials with initially collected phage. During his stay Dr Welch, Dr Colquhoun (NVI) and Dr Bergh (IMR) will also plan further collaboration. This application is in part base d on previous applications to NFR in which Dr Welch was an active collaborator. Several key experts in the field of aquatic bacteriophage therapy on a world-wide basis were also collaborators in the previous application. These experts continue to support the present application and it is hoped to establish a "network" of international laboratories active in this field.