Sea lice software helps battle salmon parasite

A software program developed at Charlottetown's Atlantic Veterinary College is now helping fish farmers across Atlantic Canada fight sea lice.

The program monitors which treatments and methods are better at controlling the costly parasites. AVC started this work in 2009, first piloting the program at fish farms in New Brunswick. Use of the software is now spreading to aquaculture sites in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

"It's helping identify when treatments are better or worse, at what times of year and that sort of thing, so it really helps on making decisions," said Prof. Larry Hammell, Innovation PEI research chair in aquatic epidemiology at AVC.

"As new treatments or new management methods are developed then it helps assess whether those things are improving."

Work on improving the software is continuing, with a new project in the works to collect and analyze data at aquaculture sites in Vietnam.