Exciting development project
Each year, the Norwegian aquaculture industry needs to vaccinate around 220 million trout and salmon. This is mainly done manually, and very occasionally using semi-automatic machines. New vaccines are being developed, and the industry expects that a high proportion of fish will need to be vaccinated 2-3 times (PD vaccines and DNA vaccines). Manual vaccination is done by companies that hire out 4-6 man teams. The quality of their work is very variable. A trained operator doing a good job can do approx. 1600 vaccines/hour. Available capacity is a critical factor, particularly now that the Norwegian veterinary authorities require
that 40% of all fish are to be vaccinated with a PD vaccine.
The main aim of the project is to develop an automatic vaccination machine with an average capacity of 20,000 fish/hour. One operator will be able to run the machine, which shall be capable of handling fish weighing 35-170 gr. The machine will use machine vision to direct the fish into the vaccination unit and ensure that they are properly vaccinated with a failure rate of less than 2%. The machine will be user friendly, reliable, designed to meet the need for good hygiene, satisfy animal welfare requirements and be capable of withstanding corrosive environments. Innovation Norway is providing financial support to the three companies involved,
thus making it possible for them to develop this new technology.
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