Biological Sciences: Fully Funded PhD Scholarship: Understanding the molecular basis of welfare and…

Funding providers: Scottish Salmon Company and Swansea University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering

Subject areas: Fish Welfare, Behaviour and domestication, Genomics/genetics

Project start date: 

• 1 January 2023 (Enrolment open from mid-December)

Supervisors: 

• Professor Sofia Consuegra  (genomics and domestication) 
• Professor Carlos Garcia de Leaniz (welfare and machine vision)
• Dr Tamsyn Unren-Webster

Aligned programme of study: PhD in Biological Sciences

Mode of study: Full-time

Project description:

Fish welfare is central for the sustainable growth of aquaculture but, because fish domestication is very recent compared to mammals and birds, knowledge and protocols for assessing welfare in aquaculture is limited. Changes in behaviour (aggression) and reduction in brain size are common effects of fish farming but their importance for fish welfare are unknown. Smaller brain size and lower cognitive abilities seem related to the less complex farming environment compared to natural fish habitats. The ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta) and the lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) are currently used as cleanerfish (a biological alternative for parasite control) in the Atlantic salmon (Atlantic salmon) farming industry. These species do not coexist in the wild but are reared together in salmon cages, raising concerns about their health and welfare, but also potentially creating a more complex, richer environment than in mono-culture.

This is a collaborative PhD projects that aims to improve the welfare and delousing efficacy of cleaner fish used in salmon farming. We aim to assess the behavioural and physical/genomic changes occurring in the brain of cleaner fish, to establish physiological and stress-related consequences of cohabitation under poly-culture and use the finding to improve fish welfare and inform the artificial selection of better, more  efficient elite lines of cleanear fish. We will use a combination of behavioural assays, genomics and epigenomics and combine these with expertise on in machine vision and deep-learning algorithms and optimise tools to assess and improve the welfare of cleanerfish in an industrial environment (SSC).

The project will focus on the following areas:

1. Baseline testing of the effect of fish interactions on behaviour, brain morphology and gene expression at the facilities in CSAR

2. Protocol development to assess, maintain and optimise cleanerfish welfare through the use of genomic biomarkers of stress and welfare

3. Validation in industry

The projects are best suited for students interested on behavioural studies combined with genomics. Close collaboration with a parallel project in AI and machine learning is expected and training will be provided both by the academic supervisors and the industrial partners.