EIGHT SALMON PRODUCTION CENTRES ADOPT THE USE OF GARWARE ANTI CALIGUS SKIRTS IN CHILE

Eight salmon production centres adopt the use of Garware anti Caligus Skirts in Chile. Cermaq, Mowi and Salmones Austral are using this non-pharmacological alternative as part of health strategies to control Caligus infestation in their operations.

Caligus is a significant challenge for the salmon industry, since it impacts the health status of the fish, stressing them and violating the mucus and skin, their first immune barrier. Due to the generation of resistance to antiparasitic products, it is relevant to complement control strategies with non-pharmacological methods. This has led to the search for alternatives, such as physical barriers, including anti-lice skirts, which reduce the interaction between the surface water bodies outside the centre and the fish inside it, thus hindering the entry of nauplii, copepodites and adult caligus, reducing the infestation. “In Chile there are two centres operating with our Skirt in Cermaq, five in Mowi and one in Salmones Austral, backed by the positive results obtained nationally and internationally, such as in Cermaq Canada, for example, where they have centres equipped with this technology,” comments Gopakumar Menon, Americas manager of Garware Technical Fibres.

The operational results of these tests are expected within six months to a year, which will allow us to verify the effectiveness of the skirts in several aspects: reduction of bathing treatments, the number of Caligus, mortality and management costs, along with improvements in animal and environmental welfare.

“The use of Skirts is a non-pharmacological tool, part of an integrated health strategy to reduce sea lice infestations, reducing the need for chemical treatments, which is a contribution that potentially delays the generation of resistance, by helping to reduce its frequency. Added to this is the economic benefit, since a bath treatment has a cost comparable to that of a Skirt, which has an approximate useful life of two growing cycles,” emphasises Marcos Jofré, business associate at Garware Technical Fibres Chile.

Garware’s R&D department – in Wai, India – created this three-dimensional micro fabric, with openings of 80 to 150 microns for Norway and 60 to 100 microns for Chile, adapted to the particularities of the parasite in each region. In Chile, the Skirt X12 has been implemented without the need to add oxygen, thanks to the fact that the skirt allows the passage of water and oxygen dissolved in it. www.garwarefibres.com