Introduction / Teaching / Service / Research

Introduction

There are more faculty person-years devoted to aquaculture at AVC than most other veterinary colleges in North America. We have an international reputation as a centre of excellence for fish health, particularly in cold-water aquaculture. Students from the United States, Europe, and the rest of Canada have come to AVC to participate in veterinary education for fish health management and pathology in the final year of the DVM program. Service, through the Aquatics Diagnostic Services Laboratory and the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, has been an integral part of maintaining our relevance to the industry. AVC faculty continue to initiate many aquaculture-related research projects, most of which are very applied to current industry problems.

The AVC is a regional institution which has repeatedly proven its value to the aquaculture industries of Atlantic Canada. AVC faculty regularly contribute to regional, national, and international scientific advancements. There is still tremendous potential for development through teaching, service, and research intitiatives in aquaculture. Our ability to remain responsive to current production management issues is our primary advantage on which we continue to build beneficial research programs.

Teaching Initiatives in Fish Health

We continue to integrate aquaculture into all appropriate disciplines taught at the AVC. The fact remains that the proportion of veterinarians graduating from AVC who will pursue fish-related careers will always be much lower than the proportion who pursue more traditional veterinary roles. For this reason, specialty teaching to DVM students from other veterinary colleges is likely to become an increasingly important component of the aquatic medicine program at AVC.

AVC is uniquely placed to offer applied and basic graduate degrees (M.Sc. and Ph.D.) in the area of fish health. There are approximately forty graduate students currently at AVC with nearly half of those involved in aquaculture related research projects, including physiology, pathology, immunology, and epidemiology. It is very important for the aquaculture industry to have more veterinarians trained for service roles through discipline training, usually in the form of internships or residencies simultaneously offered with a graduate degree. There are currently two veterinary resident/MSc in fish health: one sponsored by the New Brunswick Salmon Growers Association and the other sponsored by the Canadian Atlantic Lobster Promotions Association.

Another essential role that AVC has a proven record of excellence is in continuing education of health professionals, aquaculture industry personnel, and associated groups. The Canadian Aquaculture Institute (CAI) has gained an excellent reputation for its ability to identify and respond to the needs of the aquaculture industry. Courses have been offered in financial decision making, health and production management, disease diagnostics, epidemiology, and many other fields.

Service Activities

The finfish aquaculture industry views AVC as a responsive academic institution largely because of its service role. Clinical faculty at AVC have commitments to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) which include maintaining clients much as in private practice. It should be noted that clients of the VTH pay for the services of the clinician and therefore the client must value the advice. This relationship results in AVC faculty being very aware and responsive to the current problems facing producers. The lobster processors and longer term holding facilities have expressed a desire to have veterinarians provide health management service for their industry and we are developing our abilities in lobster health management. Long range plans will include methods of increasing the highest calibre of response to service demands by the various aquaculture industries in the most cost effective manner.

Expansion of the referral diagnostic case load coming to the Aquatic Diagnostic Services Laboratory continues. There is great potential to capitalize on the excellent reputation of AVC in fish pathology through more cases referred from others areas of the world, such as British Columbia, Chile, and southeast Asia.

Other areas of service development include an analytical toxicology service which can perform analyses to the Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) standards demanded by many research contracts. New aquaculture species health management and pathology, shellfish health and production management, and lobster veterinary services are currently being developed.

Research Activities

Contract research will continue to grow. The Atlantic Fish Health Inc (AFHI) has a proven reputation with pharmaceutical companies. Future directions for AFHI will include promotion of more pharmaceutical and producer organization sponsored research contracts. A research facility dedicated to AFHI is planned as contract demands exceed space limitations.

The Clinical Research Centre (CRC) has several projects with the aquaculture industry, including a clinical field trial to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) standards. The ability to do clinical trials in cold-water aquaculture is emerging as a unique strength derived from the collaboration of AVC faculty and the CRC.

Aquaculture research initiatives at AVC include the following primary directions

Salmonids:

Although we do not exclude research projects in the other provinces, the primary focus for salmonid field research is currently with the Atlantic salmon industry in New Brunswick.

Lobsters:

2. Health and production monitoring

3. Specific disease research and technical development

Lobster research will focus on post-harvest management and include all Atlantic provinces.

Shellfish:

2. Shellfish production monitoring

Shellfish research has thus far focused on the PEI industries.

New Species:

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