Targeted disease prophylaxis in european fish farming (October 2012 – October 2017)

By developing a targeted vaccination strategy, TargetFish will prevent important fish diseases in European aquaculture industry.

TargetFish is a large collaborative project funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

TargetFish brings together leading European research groups that are experts on the fish immune system and enterprises from the Biotech and Veterinary sectors to advance the development of existing (but not sufficient) and new prototype vaccines against socio-economically important viral or bacterial pathogens of Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, common carp, sea bass, seabream and turbot.

The main objectives of the project are:

1. to generate a knowledge- and technology-base for rational development of next generation fish vaccines by studying antigens and adjuvants for mucosal routes of administration
2. to validate knowledge of immune responses for monitoring vaccine efficacy and safety, including issues associated with DNA vaccines
3. to approach implementation of prototype vaccines by optimizing vaccination strategies, thus shortening the route to exploitation.