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Aquaculture Environment Interactions

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AEI 13:21-32 (2021)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/aei00386

Estimation of external infection pressure and salmon-louse population growth rate in Faroese salmon farms

Tróndur J. Kragesteen1,2,*, Knud Simonsen1,3, André W. Visser2, Ken H. Andersen2

1Fiskaaling - Aquaculture Research Station of the Faroes, við Áir, 430 Hvalvík, Faroe Islands
2VKR Centre for Ocean Life, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Bygning 202, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
3Frøðskaparsetur Føroya - Universtity of the Faroe Islands, J. C. Svabos gøta 14, 100 Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
*Corresponding author:

ABSTRACT: Managing salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis outbreaks is a crucial part of salmon aquaculture in sea cages. Treatment management strategies can be optimized with the aid of salmon-louse population dynamic models. These models, however, need to be calibrated and validated with biologically meaningful parameters. Here, based on a time-series of lice data, we estimated 2 essential model parameters: the external infection pressure and the salmon-louse population growth rate for each active salmon farm site in the period 2011 to 2018 in the Faroe Islands. External infection pressure was found to vary between farm sites and ranged on average from 0.002 to 0.1 lice salmon-1 d-1. Further, external infection was significantly correlated with the total number of gravid lice in the Faroese farm network. Salmon-louse population growth rates were found to vary between farm sites and ranged on average from 1.7 to 5.4% d-1. These model parameter estimates are crucial in developing a salmon-louse population dynamic model for the Faroe Islands, and the method to estimate these parameters may be applicable in other aquaculture regions.


KEY WORDS: Salmon aquaculture · Salmon lice · Modelling


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Cite this article as: Kragesteen TJ, Simonsen K, Visser AW, Andersen KH (2021) Estimation of external infection pressure and salmon-louse population growth rate in Faroese salmon farms. Aquacult Environ Interact 13:21-32. https://doi.org/10.3354/aei00386

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