Montreal, Quebec-based Canadian biotech firm EVAH Corporation has secured a U.S. patent for Barracuda, its new in-feed sea lice treatment for farmed Atlantic salmon.
Sea lice remain one of the salmon farming industry’s most costly and persistent biological challenges. EVAH claims its newly patented product – a low-dosage in-feed veterinary medicine – is highly effective at eradicating sea lice at all stages of development.
“Sea lice have been a persistent, expensive, and painful challenge for too long in the farming of Atlantic salmon," EVAH President and CEO Michel Fortin said in a statement. "While infestations occur naturally, the pressure on Atlantic farmed and also wild salmonids such as rainbow trout and Arctic charr has increased significantly. It’s time to offer the entire sector a solution that truly works – and it works with nature, not against it.”
The marine parasites attach to salmonids and feed on their mucus, skin, and blood; while they can affect both farmed and wild populations, they are particularly prevalent in the world’s leading farmers of Atlantic salmon, including Norway, Chile, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
"The estimated annual cost [of sea lice] to the industry is expected to exceed USD 4 billion," EVAH said, noting that sea live have developed resistances to many treatments already.
“The Atlantic salmon industry has reached a biological ceiling,” said Fortin. “Producers are battling the same parasite with increasingly ineffective tools. What’s needed is not just another workaround – but a real breakthrough.”
The company said that Barracuda demonstrated an extremely high 99 percent efficacy in tank studies. It also said that the in-feed delivery system reduces stress on fish, since it doesn’t require handling, which in turn improves the animals’ well being.
Fortin believes that Barracuda can offer salmon farmers a middle route between responsibility and profitability, and says that the U.S. patent is evidence of the product’s potential.
“The grant of the U.S. patent – followed by a [patent cooperation treaty] application covering all relevant markets – is a strong validation for EVAH’s approach to solving structural problems in animal protein production through science and sustainability, while protecting the company’s IP," Fortin said.
