Marine Harvest is extending its multi-year collaboration with Ålesund, Norway-based biotech firm PatoGen.
The partnership has resulted in the creation of PatoGen’s SmoltTimer – a tool used to optimize smolt production, smolt quality, and time of transfer of smolt groups to sea, according to Jorge Mancilla, Marine Harvest Chile’s Fish Health and Nutrition Manager.
“Our initial focus has been to contribute to the calibration of SmoltTimer for use in Chile and on implementing this new tool in our freshwater sites in Chile,” Mancilla said in a press release. “We are very satisfied with using this tool to optimize smolt production, smolt quality and time of transfer of smolt groups to sea.”
The two firms are also finalizing testing on a new tool that tests for the optimal time to implement anti-sea lice treatments called LiceAdvisor.
“We have had a very fruitful relationship with PatoGen [over] the last 13 years,” Marine Harvest Group Manager Fish Health and Welfare Gordon Ritchie said in a press release. “I believe that facilitating the introduction of new technologies to Chile is an important contribution to further development of the industry.”
Vidar Aspehaug, PatoGen’s co-founder and chief of business development, said the company is now selling its technology to other Chilean fish-farming companies via a new office in Puerto Varas, Chile.
“This collaboration [with Marine Harvest] has been vital for the expansion of our services to Chile,” Aspehaug said.
