Category: Other news

Proyecto ARISA: Análisis en Red de la Información Sanitaria en Acuicultura

El Departamento de Patología Animal de la Facultad de Veterinaria de la Universidad de Zaragoza coordina el Proyecto ARISA que cuenta con la colaboración de la Fundación Biodiversidad, del Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico, a través del Programa pleamar, cofinanciado por el Fondo Europeo Marítimo y de Pesca 2014-2020.

La buena salud de los animales acuáticos es esencial para su óptima producción y comercialización. El control de las enfermedades, especialmente en el medio marino, es complejo, y conocer en todo momento la situación epidemiológica es una de las claves principales de una gestión sanitaria eficiente. Cuando se dispone de datos sanitarios de calidad se pueden caracterizar los patrones espacio-temporales, ambientales y de manejo asociados a los factores de riesgo en la ocurrencia de un brote, lo que permite establecer medidas más eficaces de control y prevención. Sin embargo, la ausencia en nuestro país de estudios epidemiológicos en acuicultura, junto con el desconocimiento de los factores (ambientales, manejo, etc.) que afectan a la prevalencia de las enfermedades en acuicultura y, por tanto, la falta de indicadores sanitarios y productivos para poder desarrollar estudios de calidad, nos lleva a definir como objetivo principal del proyecto ARISA: “Mejorar la metodología de obtención de información en acuicultura continental y marina española para facilitar el análisis de la situación sanitaria del sector, la estandarización de indicadores de salud (prevalencia, mortalidad, bienestar) y la identificación de parámetros ambientales que permitan la realización de estudios epidemiológicos de calidad y su posible correlación con parámetros ambientales que posibiliten el estudio del efecto que el cambio climático puede tener en las enfermedades de animales acuáticos”.Continue reading

On July 23rd, at the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of the University of Cantabria (Santander), the act of defense of the Doctoral Thesis of Manuel Luna García took place. The Thesis, entitled “Data science applications to the decision-making process in Aquaculture Business Management”, focused on the application of data analysis and processing techniques to develop new computational models that address the decision-making process in aquaculture companies. Manuel Luna has developed his research in the framework of the MedAID project, working on the objectives of WP6 on “Improving business performance and development of strategic marketing plans”, in particular the activities related to the improvement of efficiency and economic performance of aquaculture enterprises. The thesis has been directed by the professors of the University of Cantabria, Angel Cobo and Ignacio Llorente, and the evaluation panel has been chaired by Dr. Fernando González Laxe, Professor of Applied Economics at the University of La Coruña.  The thesis has been carried out through the system of compendium of scientific publications, resulting in the publication of the following 3 articles in journals of international impact:

• Luna, M., Llorente, I., & Cobo, Á. (2019). Integration of environmental sustainability and product quality criteria in the decision-making process for feeding strategies in seabream aquaculture companies. Journal of cleaner production, 217, 691-701.
• Luna, M., Llorente, I., & Cobo, A. (2019). Determination of feeding strategies in aquaculture farms using a multiple-criteria approach and genetic algorithms. Annals of Operations Research, 1-26.
• Luna, M., Llorente, I., & Cobo, A. (2020). Aquaculture production optimisation in multi-cage farms subject to commercial and operational constraints. Biosystems Engineering, 196, 29-45.

Prof. Dr Mohamed A. Essa, as Egyptian aquaculture expert was working in fish breeding and production, and sustainability research worldwide. He was a leading expert in aquaculture system design and piloting. His career history was a long series of successful management of large projects: programming, budgeting, planning, supervision and monitoring of implementation, coordination and control of outside consulting experts and suppliers of specific equipment, elaboration of process schedules and execution rules and check-lists, recruitment, training and management of personnel. Prof. Essa was strong international working relationships with many of the scientists and researchers in the field of aquaculture in Spain, Scotland, Hungary and, United States. Prof. Dr Mohamed A. Essa, was leads more than 230 researchers as a head of the aquaculture division, NIOF, during the period 2007 to 2011 and was considerable expert in the Developing tools for sustainable aquaculture in Egypt.

IAMZ-CIHEAM, together with IATS_CSIC, has organised a specialised course for professionals on Advances in fish reproduction and their application to broodstock management from 19-23 February 2018, at Torre de la Sal, Castellón, Spain.

As in many other parts of the world, fish farming is expanding rapidly in the Mediterranean, where for certain species, particularly trout, sea bream, sea bass, tilapia, carp and mullet, aquaculture already makes up most of the production. The development of intensive culture is conditioned by the control of reproduction and broodstock management, thus facilitating permanent supply of constant and optimum quality fry, so as to permit large-scale culture up to market size.Continue reading

From today to the 25th of January, Diversify Project celebrates its ANNUAL COORDINATION MEETING. The first 2 days will be held at the Faculty of Physics, ULL and the 3rd day at the IEO in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The event will be hosted by Drs. Jose Perez and Covadonga Rodriguez (ULL), and Salvador Jerez and Virginia Martin (IEO).

The project is coordinated by our colleague Dinos Mylonas from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), who takes part in MedAID in Work Package 2 Improving Zootechnical Performance and Work Package 8 Integrated proposals for an innovative and competitive sector.Continue reading

MedAID (Mediterranean Aquaculture Integrated Development), together with PerformFISH (Integrating Innovative Approaches for Competitive and Sustainable Performance across the Mediterranean Aquaculture Value Chain), are two RIA (Research and Innovation Action) which have been approved under the call SFS-23-2016 “Improving the technical performance of the Mediterranean aquaculture”. The Commission and the Project Coordination Teams of PERFORMFISH and MedAID understand the need to establish efficient coordination mechanisms between the two projects in order to avoid duplication of effort, maximise resources, and seek for synergies between the two consortia. Thus, an effective, dynamic and regular collaboration between the two projects is desirable and it has been pursued to increase the scope and soundness of the results, project impacts and its legacy.Continue reading