High hopes for novel catfish vaccine

A new vaccine that's designed to protect catfish from columnaris disease is currently being developed by Auburn University.

Columnaris is one of the most serious bacterial infections in the aquaculture industry today – affecting numerous freshwater fish species and causing millions of dollars in annual losses in the catfish industry alone.

The new vaccine, still in its experimental phase, is being developed and patented by Dr Cova Arias, professor in Auburn’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, who claims it has outperformed the only vaccine against the disease currently available on the market – in trials on Nile tilapia and catfish, the vaccine increased survival rates by 66 and 17 percent, respectively.

The Auburn University researchers are now using a $321,000 US Department of Agriculture grant to field-test the vaccine, which uses bacteria derived from a highly virulent strain of the disease.

In lab tests, the experimental vaccine developed and patented by Cova Arias, professor in Auburn’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, has outperformed the vaccine that's currently on the market.

“At this point in our research, we need data on a larger scale to successfully commercialize the vaccine,” Arias said. “We will use this most recent grant to fill our gap of information.”