Browsing by Author "Rozas-Serri, Marco"

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    Co-Infection by LF-89-Like and EM-90-Like Genogroups of Piscirickettsia Salmonis in Farmed Atlantic Salmon in Chile: Implications for Surveillance and Control of Piscirickettsiosis
    (MDPI, 2023) Rozas-Serri, Marco; Pena, Andrea; Gardner, Ian; Penaloza, Estefania; Maldonado, Lucerina; Munoz, Ariel; Mardones Loyola, Fernando Otoniel; Rodriguez, Catalina; Ildefonso, Ricardo; Senn, Carolina; Aranis, Felipe
    Piscirickettsiosis (SRS), caused by Piscirickettsia salmonis, is the main infectious disease that affects farmed Atlantic salmon in Chile. Currently, the official surveillance and control plan for SRS in Chile is based only on the detection of P. salmonis, but neither of its genogroups (LF-89-like and EM-90-like) are included. Surveillance at the genogroup level is essential not only for defining and evaluating the vaccination strategy against SRS, but it is also of utmost importance for early diagnosis, clinical prognosis in the field, treatment, and control of the disease. The objectives of this study were to characterize the spatio-temporal distribution of P. salmonis genogroups using genogroup-specific real-time probe-based polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to discriminate between LF-89-like and EM-90-like within and between seawater farms, individual fish, and tissues/organs during early infection in Atlantic salmon under field conditions. The spatio-temporal distribution of LF-89-like and EM-90-like was shown to be highly variable within and between seawater farms. P. salmonis infection was also proven to be caused by both genogroups at farm, fish, and tissue levels. Our study demonstrated for the first time a complex co-infection by P. salmonis LF-89-like and EM-90-like in Atlantic salmon. Liver nodules (moderate and severe) were strongly associated with EM-90-like infection, but this phenotype was not detected by infection with LF-89-like or co-infection of both genogroups. The detection rate of P. salmonis LF-89-like increased significantly between 2017 and 2021 and was the most prevalent genogroup in Chilean salmon aquaculture during this period. Lastly, a novel strategy to identify P. salmonis genogroups based on novel genogroup-specific qPCR for LF-89-like and EM-90-like genogroups is suggested.
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    Eliciting expert judgements to estimate risk and protective factors for Piscirickettsiosis in Chilean salmon farming
    (2019) Estévez Weinstein, Rodrigo Antonio; Mardones Loyola, Fernando Otoniel; Alamos, Felipe; Arriagada, Gabriel; Carey, Jan; Correa, Christian; Escobar-Dodero, Joaquín; Gaete, Alvaro; Gallardo, Alicia; Ibarra, Rolando; Ortiz, Cristhian; Rozas-Serri, Marco; Sandoval, Osvaldo; Santana, Jaime; Gelcich, Stefan
    Global production of farmed salmon is increasingly threatened by emerging infectious diseases. Piscirickettsiosis or Salmonid Rickettsial Septicemia (SRS), a disease caused by the bacterium Piscirickettsia salmonis, is the major responsible for the overall disease-specific mortalities in the Chilean salmon industry. In this study, we applied a structured expert elicitation process to identify risk and protective factors associated with severe outbreaks of SRS during a production cycle. We used a qualitative based-expert approach to calculate risk estimators for ten risk factors and seven protective factors. In the expert elicitation process, each participant independently estimated factors in two rounds. Between the first and second round, we facilitated a workshop among experts to discuss preliminary results. As a result, the inter-expert variation of the experts' estimates was systematically reduced. Our results are concordant with preliminary studies about risk factors for SRS. Importantly, we identified novel factors that may be associated to an increased risk for severe SRS outbreaks, such as fouling of cages, density of farms in neighborhoods, presence of sea lions and early mature salmonids. Novel factors that appear to reduce the risk of severe outbreaks of SRS were synchronized farm rest periods, opportune diagnosis and necropsy training. Using these results, we propose an intervention model to provide better information for strategic decision making.