Description du projet
Technologie innovante de traitement des parasites dans l’élevage du saumon
L’industrie de la salmoniculture offre une source de protéines animales hautement nutritives assortie d’une faible empreinte carbone. Cependant, un minuscule pou de mer est l’un des parasites les plus redoutés et les plus tenaces de la salmoniculture. Ce parasite et ses traitements occasionnent d’importants dommages directs et indirects aux fermes salmonicoles, en raison de la mortalité des poissons due aux infections des plaies et aux maladies bactériennes induites par le pou de mer. Le projet Game Changer, financé par l’UE, propose une solution de deeptech qui ne nécessite pas de manipuler les poissons. Cette technologie exploitera l’IA et l’apprentissage automatique pour vaincre les poux de mer. Elle tiendra compte de l’environnement difficile qu’est le milieu marin et permettra d’éviter de porter atteinte aux poissons des fermes salmonicoles ou à l’environnement.
Objectif
Globally the salmon aquaculture industry is worth circa $14 billion USD (2019 figures), the main obstacle to further growth is the tiny sea louse. Konree Innovation is developing a deep-tech game-changing and disruptive technology to tackle this, the single most feared and persistent, pest in salmon aquaculture – the sea louse. The sea louse is regulated everywhere it is farmed, once the levels present reach the regulatory threshold, it triggers treatment. The direct cost to the industry in treatments for sea lice is approximately $1 billion USD (2019 figures), while the indirect cost is estimated to be ca. $3 billion USD, mainly due to fish deaths brought about by weakening of the salmon due to sea lice induced wound infections and bacterial diseases therein as well as the non-optimised handling of the fish during treatments. Up to 20% of production can be lost in this way.
Konree Innovation is developing a deep-tech non-fish-handling solution that will employ both artificial and machine learning to outsmart the sea louse’s biological strategy for infestation. The sea is a tough harsh environment, the technology will need to perform well in this environment and do no harm to the fish in the pen, the pen itself or the environment. All these requirements demand a deep-tech solution. Konree Innovation is internationally focused: Norway has 56% of global production, next Chile at 28%, North America at 7%, Scotland at 6%, Australia and New Zealand at 2.4%, Ireland at 0.6%. Iceland and the Faroe Islands are now also farming Atlantic salmon. Consumer demand for alternative climate- and planet-friendly sources of protein is expected to get much higher, and farmed salmon offers a highly nutritious source of animal protein with a low carbon footprint. An effective way to maintain control and manage sea lice numbers will overcome the barrier to growth and enable the salmon producer industry to compete with the big meat producers that have a much higher carbon footprint.
Champ scientifique
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheries
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.2 - European innovation ecosystems Main Programme
Régime de financement
HORIZON-AG-LS - HORIZON Lump Sum GrantCoordinateur
H65 AT86 ATHENRY
Irlande
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.