ParAnthropE
![Adult female salmon louse marked with a micro-chip](https://www.uib.no/sites/w3.uib.no/files/styles/content_main/public/media/lus_m_chip.png?itok=M3cRGeBJ×tamp=1632469093)
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Parasites and pathogens are famous for their ability to evolve resistance to drugs and vaccines, and salmon lice are no exception. Some of our former studies show there is another aspect to parasite evolution that may have largely gone unnoticed: the conditions experienced by salmon lice on farms seem to favor more rapid life cycles, which involves more intense grazing on the fish, and therefore also causing increasing damage caused to the fish.
In the ParAnthropE project we use experimental evolutionary methods to test how fast this type of evolution is happening in the salmon louse, and identify key trade-offs. This will allow us to calculate the evolutionary parameters needed to make scenarios for further evolutionary changes on salmon farms.
We also study the behavioural ecology of salmon lice, including their dispersal behaviour, thanks to a simple but new tagging method for tracking them throughout their adult life.
This project is a collaboration between the Evolutionary Ecology group, SLRC, and international evolutionary biologists based at the Universities of Oslo, Basel and Montpellier. It has relevance for both basic evolutionary science and sustainable fish production.
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