The objectives of this QASH (Quantitative Atlantic Salmon Health) pre-project were:
1. To establish an international group dedicated to forming the first iteration of the "Global Atlantic Salmon Health Index", a management and certification tool based on objective measures of health and robustness
2. To organize a satellite workshop on objective measures of salmon health which can be applied industrially, under the International Symposium for Aquatic Animal Health in Charlottetown Canada Sept 2018.
3. To propose proactive measures for documentation of Health and early detection of regionally important Atlantic salmon health challenges within the draft QASH tool.
These goals were acheived. There was broad concensus that documentation of the presence of health in fish, rather than the absence of pathogens, was currently lacking and impacting industrial decisions at all levels. There were about 100 participants during the day-long session. The workshops on "Biomarkers and Barriers" and the "Ideal Toolbox" highlighted these needs:
? Standards (benchmarks) for identification of normal healthy salmon
? Standardization of methods for comparison between labs and countries
? Blood chemistry standards and analytics to generate baselines and reference parameters
? Accurate biomass estimation
? Reproducible, reliable, objective methods
? Predictive power for a selection of tools
? An easy set of approaches (panel of biomarkers) operational at farm levels
? Registry of cause-specific mortalities (biological relevant measure of welfare)
? Behavioural monitoring (desire automatic evaluation of visual information)
Quantitative Atlantic Salmon Health enlisted scientists and practitioners from the major salmon producing countries to a day-long Special Session under the 4th International Symposium on Aquatic Animal Health in Canada September 2018. There were about 100 attendees to identify industrially desirable and empirically validated candidate indicators of health and robustness in farmed Atlantic salmon across the globe. The Quantitative Atlantic Salmon Health (QASH) tool shortlist of recommendations for viable quantitative candidate indicators of health in salmon include: Blood parameters, gill and gut health as well as behavioral indicators of health. We emphasized empirical validation in both northern and southern hemispheres. This draft QASH index tool is proposed as the objective basis for establishing standards which document fish health and welfare, good environmental practices and appropriate feed ingredients for the global salmon aquaculture industry.
The goal of this proposal is to identify industrially applicable and empirically validated candidate indicators of health and robustness in farmed Atlantic salmon across the globe. This will gather a small team of international experts from Norway, Scotland, Canada and Chile to devise the first list of applicable candidate indicators for the Quantitative Atlantic Salmon Health (QASH) assessment while recognizing national practices and constraints. The project coordinators will organize a satellite workshop during the International Symposium on Aquatic Animal Health in Sept 2018 in order to elicit further input from a large gathering of internationally recognized expertise. This Project will produce a Final Report including a shortlist of viable quantitiative candidate indicators of health in salmon. This draft QASH index tool is proposed as the basis for establishing validated documentation of fish health and welfare, good environmental practices and appropriate feed ingredients for the global salmon aquaculture industry.
