About the Project
Supervisors: Prof Christopher Secombes, Dr Catherine Collins and Dr Bertrand Collet
The overall objective of this project is to develop a method for non-lethal sampling and analysis of blood and mucous from individual fish over time to investigate the host response to ectoparasitic infestation. This will allow a better linking of response dynamics with infection outcome, and reduce inter-fish variability which can obscure patterns, allowing the number of fish needed for such experiments to be reduced. The project will focus on ameobic gill disease (AGD) as a model, a salmon disease caused by the amoeba Paramoeba perurans, that has recently emerged in Europe and is a serious threat to the salmon aquaculture industry. We have a successful method of cultivating the amoebic agent and in vivo challenge models are possible. A strong focus of the project will be to investigate available methods and/or to develop new approaches with sufficient sensitivity to measure parameters in mucous. Methods for recording disease progression/parasite load, which can be performed within the limited time fish are anaesthetised during each sampling point and which do not affect disease outcome, will also be developed. Subsequently, the utility of non-lethal mucous sampling to study host responses will be investigated. The student will be based at the member institutions of the Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre (SFIRC) at Aberdeen (University of Aberdeen and Marine Scotland), where there are excellent training opportunities for fish health research. The partners have a strong track record of past collaborations on fish immunology/ disease research programmes, and joint PhD student supervision.
Funding Notes
This project is funded by NC3Rs. Full funding is available to UK/EU applicants only.
Candidates should have (or expect to achieve) a minimum of a 2.1 Honours degree in a relevant subject. Applicants with a minimum of a 2.2 Honours degree may be considered provided they have a Distinction at Masters level.
References
(1) Chang M.-X., Zou, J., Nie, P., Huang, B., Yu, Z., Collet, B. & Secombes, C.J. (2013). Intracellular interferons in fish: A unique means to combat viral infection. PLOS Pathogens 9 (11): e1003736.
(2) Hong, S., Li, R., Xu, Q., Secombes, C.J. & Wang, T. (2013). Two types of TNF-α exist in teleost fish: Phylogeny, expression, and bioactivity analysis of type-II TNF-α3 in rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. J. Immunol. 191: 5959-5972.
(3) Wang, T. & Secombes, C.J. (2013). The cytokine networks of adaptive immunity in fish. Fish & Shellfish Immunol. 35: 1703-1718.
(4) Nowak, B. et al. (2014). Immunity to ameoba. Dev. Comp. Immunol 43: 257-267.
(5) Mitchell, S.O. & Rodger, H.D. (2011). A review of infectious gill disease in marine salmonid fish. J. Fish Diseases 34: 411-432.
Continue with Facebook
