The board of Cermaq has approved a major investment of NOK 48 million for EWOS Innovation to build a state of the art disease challenge facility, situated in Colaco, Chile. Such a strategic investment is expected to reduce the time to market for exciting new feed products.

A challenge unit is a research facility where live fish are infected or infested with different pathogens under controlled conditions to test the efficacy of functional feeds, medicines or vaccines in reducing mortality.

“The facility represents a significant business opportunity for EWOS”, said the recently appointed head of EWOS,  Einar Wathne. “We expect it will be completed within Q2 2014 and will fast-track the time to market for the new generation of EWOS functional feeds optimising fish health.” 

Today, the salmon farming industry is facing a higher number of disease challenges. These include a complex range of viral, bacterial and parasitic pathogens, in all production regions. Although the use of medicines, such as antibiotics and sea lice chemo-therapeutants has provided highly effective control, their use needs to be managed to minimize environmental impact and stakeholder concerns.

Functional feeds such as EWOS boost, EWOS alpha and EWOS robust have become essential tools for use in integrated health management. Delivering functional components in feeds for fish is an obvious solution as it is only through feed we reach the fish several times a day through the lifecycle of more than 800 days.

“The new EWOS Innovation challenge facility will strengthen the ability for EWOS to provide leading edge research and documentation for its customers, the aquaculture value chain and the wider scientific community”, said Wathne.