B-1049: Understanding co-infections in salmon and how it can shape our management of disease

Presenter: Dr. Mark Fast

Date: October 29, 2021 Time: 02:00 PM UTC

CEPD credits are available for this event

Costs for training: Free to full members, Free to student members, Non member/guest: $15

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Presentation Synopsis:

Wild and farmed salmon populations are typically exposed to multiple stressors and the cumulative impact of co-infections between these organisms and abiotic environmental pressures may trigger complex interactions, eliciting different pathological and immunological outcomes than expected from individual host-pathogen interactions. New studies in fish specifically focus on the impact of heterogenous co-infections modulating pathogenetic dynamics, and how we must alter intervention strategies to account for these complex interactions.

Presentation Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand how single infection differs from co-infection
  2. Understand how order of infecting organisms can impact clinical outcomes in a co-infection scenario.
  3. Understand the impacts feed manipulation can have under single and coinfection conditions and their impact on host immunity

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Mark Fast is an internationally recognized expert on sea lice, having completed an MSc on, ‘Differential host susceptibility of Lepeophteirus salmonis’ in 2001, and a PhD on ‘Lepeophtheirus salmonis host immunomodulation’ in 2005.  Dr. Fast has worked on fish health, comparative immunology and host-pathogen interactions, with a major focus on sea lice since 1999.  In 2007, Dr. Fast joined the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, NY, as an Assistant Professor and in 2010 took up the Novartis Research Chair in Fish Health at the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC)-UPEI until 2015.  Dr. Fast is currently a Full Professor at AVC-UPEI, researching new methods for controlling sea lice infection in Atlantic salmon, comparative immunology, vaccinology and feed associated immunomodulation of of teleosts and chondrosteans.