Cardiomyopathy Syndrome in Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar): Fishing for a Cure

Cardiomyopathy syndrome (CMS) is a prevalent cardiac disease, which is currently one of the most costly illnesses in the Norwegian salmon industry. Thus, there is a great economic and animal welfare potential associated with improving diagnosis and treatment. This project is designed to address central mechanisms of CMS, and relies on extensive exploitation of biological material from farmed and wild salmon alike. The project aims to improve current knowledge about CMS to create better prognostic tools and possible future treatments for affected fish. This is of outmost importance as CMS prevalence keeps increasing with accumulating economic expenses and losses being the most immediate consequence. A virus triggers the disease, but vaccination against this virus has so far been unfruitful. Hence, the project focuses on possible treatment strategies that circumvent the direct effects of viral infection. Identifying robust prognostic markers will be of great aid for fish farmers when suspecting a CMS outbreak in their cages and can provide important pointers to immediate action in diseased cohorts. Due to the generality of biomarkers in relation to cardiac disease, they will likely also be legible to detect other cardiac diseases in salmon. Not least, these biomarkers can have great impact for assessment of general fish health and welfare in aquaculture. Further, the proposed work for verification of appropriate pharmaceutical treatments of CMS will aim to create novel therapies suitable for aquaculture conditions.

Cardiomyopathy syndrom (CMS) is a prevalent disease which is currently one of the most costly illnesses in the Norwegian salmon industry. Thus, there is a great economic and animal welfare potential associated with improving diagnosis and treatment. This project is designed to address central mechanisms of CMS, and relies on extensive exploitation of biological material from farmed and wild salmon alike. The current proposal aims to improve current knowledge about CMS to create better prognostic tools and possible future treatments for affected cohorts. This is of outmost importance as CMS prevalence keeps increasing with accumulating economic expenses and losses being the most immediate consequence. Since vaccination against PMCV infection has so far been unfruitful, the project focuses on possible treatment strategies that circumvent the direct effects of viral infection. Identifying robust prognostic markers will be of great aid for fish farmers when suspecting a CMS outbreak in their cages and can provide important pointers to immediate action in diseased cohorts. Due to the generality of biomarkers in relation to cardiac disease, they will likely also be legible to detect other cardiac diseases such as pancreatic disease and heart and skeletal muscle inflammation. Not least, these biomarkers can have great impact for assessment of general fish health and welfare in aquaculture. Further, the proposed work for verification of appropriate pharmaceutical treatments of CMS will investigate the hypotheses and create “proof of concept” treatments that can be developed into pharmaceutical therapies suitable for aquaculture conditions.