Manolin begins automated disease alert system for salmon farmers

With outbreaks threatening the industry, the Norwegian software and data analytics company launched a secure system to automatically alert farmers of nearby disease risks.

On August 19, 2021, Manolin, a Norwegian software and data analytics company, has announced a new service. The company that builds disease detection models to fuel sustainability in aquaculture has developed a system that automatically alerts farmers to non-notifiable diseases in their area.

“We’re excited to let farmers instantly share critical disease information within a secure farmer-only network,” said Tony Chen, Manolin co-founder and CEO.

With this new service, farmers receive an email alert and a notification on their Manolin dashboard, which is accessible via desktop or mobile. Right now, the system notifies any farm within a 37 mile (60 kilometer) radius of an outbreak.

“When we have a suspected or confirmed mortality case, the system will immediately trigger a notification to all farmers without any sort of action needed,” said Chen. “The system is designed to be a signal for a farm to pay attention to their stock more, as the threat of disease is in the area. To protect our customers’ data privacy, we do not currently release the exact location of the outbreak.”

It’s the first and only available system to notify farmers about the risk of nearby non-notifiable diseases, which are not currently tracked by Norway’s government regulators. The Norwegian government tracks pancreas disease (PD) and infectious salmon anaemia (ISA). But most other diseases are non-notifiable, meaning that the farm is not required to notify any regulatory agencies about an outbreak.

“Outbreaks of these diseases are growing and pose a huge threat to the industry,” said Chen. “This [new service] will give farms more time to plan biosecurity measures that can minimize the impact of these diseases for their area and the entire industry.”

Now Hatching: Millennial duo’s aquaculture analytics software

 

Manolin’s industry member data indicates that non-notifiable diseases caused fewer than one percent of total mortalities between 2012 and 2016. However, this figure increased to 10 percent in 2019 and nine percent in 2020. To date in 2021, non-notifiable diseases have comprised 7 percent of total reported mortalities.

A Norwegian Veterinary Institute 2020 report titled “The Health Situation in Norwegian Aquaculture” indicates that the number of localities diagnosed with cardiomyopathy syndrome (CMS) more than tripled (from 49 to 154) between 2010 and 2020. The annual survey of fish health personnel and Norwegian Food Safety Authority inspectors found that CMS was considered the most important mortality-related problem in farmed salmon in 2020. There has also been a concerning increase in outbreaks of pasteurellosis since 2017. For some industry members, Manolin’s alert system could be a game-changer.

“We are excited about this update and believe it’s a significant step in disease management for this industry,” said Kristian Botnen, CEO at Lingalaks, a salmon farming company in Norway. “For us, having a way to securely share relevant disease information within the network means we not only have more time to prevent the disease, it also allows others in the area to do the same.”

In addition to new disease alerts, Manolin released new benchmarking tools and geospatial analysis on its platform today. Anyone can open a free account and explore current and historic disease, lice and treatment data in their area.

Follow the Advocate on Twitter @GAA_Advocate