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Location: Dalhousie Agricultural Campus (Truro)

Project: Novel microalgal products as alternatives for Antibiotic use in cultured fish

Background: Finfish aquaculture requires sustainable nutritional resources for optimal production, with the ultimate goal of growing healthy fish for nutritious protein and omega-3’s for human consumption. Microalgae species will be examined for complete nutritional profiles (optimal amino acid and fatty acid profiles) and evaluated for their potential as functional feed ingredients to enhance growth, pigmentation and antimicrobial effectiveness against skin ulcer and bacterial kidney diseases. These functional ingredient changes will be examined in challenge trials using already developed challenge models and molecular analysis pipelines.

Objective 1: Functional impact of algal sourced astaxanthin replacement in salmon feed

Objective 2: Immunostimulation of salmon through algal supplementation

Objective 3: Application of algal supplementation to a non-salmonid species (halibut)

The project is part of the Ocean Frontier Institute’s large research project “One Ocean Health”. The collaborative project involves UPEI, the National Research Council, and AquaBounty.

The student will be co-supervised by Dr. Mark Fast at UPEI. The student will work on conducting the feeding and challenge trials as well as generating and analyzing transcriptome data, and will gain experience in salmon rearing, infection challenge trials, nutritional analyses (protein, fat, fatty acid, amino acid analysis), and organoleptic/sensory quality analyses. The student will have an opportunity to work with and train undergraduate DVM summer students who will assist in both challenge trails, fish maintenance as well as qPCR and data analysis.

Qualifications: Applicants must have a M.Sc. degree in an aquaculture or marine biology related field. Experience with finfish species would be an asset.  

Stipend: $35,000 per year for 3 years

Start Date: May 1, 2021

Contact: Dr. Stefanie Colombo, Dept. Animal Science & Aquaculture (SColombo@Dal.ca)

For Graduate Program Information:

For further information about the Ph.D. Program at the Faculty of Agriculture, visit the Faculty of Agriculture web site