Helping Advance Aquaculture Research Across Canada

By Julianna Stangroom, Scientific Advisor

If you were asked to define research accessibility, how would you do it?

Some of us might reference open access articles, others may highlight television programs for general audiences or translation services. Most would define research accessibility as through improved public access to information.

Accessibility can encompass so much more than information, however. It can include the means to create that information. For example: access to materials, to regulatory permissions, to connections, and to physically or fiscally accessible facilities.

Canada’s public research infrastructure has several gaps in terms of aquaculture “access”. No centralized public repository exists for fish and shellfish pathogens or cell lines. Aquatic facilities certified to handle pathogens are few and far between. Even fewer have the capacity to handle multiple cultured fish or shellfish species at all life stages. It is within these gaps that a contract research organization like Onda can provide benefits for the whole country.

Since its inception, Onda has formed collaborative partnerships with Canadian universities and organizations with a mutual goal in mind: to build a stronger national research ecosystem. That support has often taken some unconventional turns in the name of access.

Onda has hatched eggs and raised larvae for facilities not equipped with hatchery systems. We have shipped fish or test diets for game fish across the country when large-scale suppliers, such as farms, were not available. We’ve even produced biological reference materials, such as tissues or whole frozen shrimp, for the development of methodologies elsewhere!

Throughout the years, we have shared live cultures of bacteria, viruses, parasites, and cells that were not commercially accessible. Onda has shared experts and equipment to assist in their cultivation to our nearby friends. Our doors have also been opened to provincial crises – Onda has put forth significant efforts to collect materials and develop solutions for the monitoring of MSX and dermo in PEI.

On a grander scale, Onda has been developing the blueprint for what an aquaculture aquatic research facility looks like in Canada. We are working closely with regulators to tackle all the challenges that novelty brings. The outcomes of our effluent disinfection efficacy regimens have informed the approval or rejection of other aquatic facilities. Onda is the first in line to perform risk assessments for novel pathogens, cultured species, and diet or health treatment ingredients. As such, we are vocal advocates for the implementation and improvement of systems that delay research efforts in this country.

Though much of the research we do is not accessible in the traditional sense, Onda has contributed greatly to research accessibility in the Atlantic region and beyond. Our vision for the future includes even greater contributions.