WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.547 --> 00:00:03.714 (upbeat techno music) 2 00:00:10.210 --> 00:00:12.090 So Aquaculture is the practice of growing 3 00:00:12.090 --> 00:00:13.700 and farming aquatic species. 4 00:00:13.700 --> 00:00:15.950 This can be anything from plants such as algae. 5 00:00:15.950 --> 00:00:17.630 All the way up to larger organisms such as 6 00:00:17.630 --> 00:00:19.100 fish, mussels, shrimp. 7 00:00:19.100 --> 00:00:20.440 As well as many others. 8 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:21.760 This is also an ancient practice 9 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:23.499 that dates back to 6000 BC 10 00:00:23.499 --> 00:00:25.820 and has been widely used by different cultures 11 00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:27.310 through out time. 12 00:00:27.310 --> 00:00:29.361 However it wasn't until the 1960 that it really started 13 00:00:29.361 --> 00:00:32.110 to show up in Mississippi as a food industry. 14 00:00:32.110 --> 00:00:33.430 It would take another 20 years or so 15 00:00:33.430 --> 00:00:35.510 before it really became popular. 16 00:00:35.510 --> 00:00:36.980 So one of the major problems is, 17 00:00:36.980 --> 00:00:38.850 because this industry is still in its infancy 18 00:00:38.850 --> 00:00:40.430 in the United States we're still going through 19 00:00:40.430 --> 00:00:41.790 a lot of growing pains. 20 00:00:41.790 --> 00:00:44.180 One of the major problems is that as we continue to 21 00:00:44.180 --> 00:00:47.050 increase production by stocking more fish into these ponds 22 00:00:47.050 --> 00:00:49.510 we're also increasing the number of diseases we have 23 00:00:49.510 --> 00:00:51.070 as well as the number of outbreaks 24 00:00:51.070 --> 00:00:53.450 that we have to deal with each year. 25 00:00:53.450 --> 00:00:54.430 As many of you might know 26 00:00:54.430 --> 00:00:56.810 Mississippi is a major producer of Catfish. 27 00:00:56.810 --> 00:00:59.270 In fact 60 to 70 percent of all Catfish produced in 28 00:00:59.270 --> 00:01:01.719 the United States is produced in Mississippi alone. 29 00:01:01.719 --> 00:01:05.260 So my research is focused on one of these diseases 30 00:01:05.260 --> 00:01:07.100 in particular that's having a detrimental effect 31 00:01:07.100 --> 00:01:08.961 on the Mississippi industry. 32 00:01:08.961 --> 00:01:11.670 This disease causes major clinical signs such as, 33 00:01:11.670 --> 00:01:14.010 discolorations as well as hemorrhaging in or around 34 00:01:14.010 --> 00:01:16.280 the eyes which you can see in this bottom picture. 35 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:18.210 In addition to this it can also create these 36 00:01:18.210 --> 00:01:21.080 massive die offs, where a single farm may lose 37 00:01:21.080 --> 00:01:23.090 20 thousands pounds of fish or more 38 00:01:23.090 --> 00:01:24.430 in the course of a weekend. 39 00:01:24.430 --> 00:01:25.730 So it can be extremely detrimental 40 00:01:25.730 --> 00:01:27.950 in a very short amount of time. 41 00:01:27.950 --> 00:01:30.151 The question we really wanted to answer early on 42 00:01:30.151 --> 00:01:33.750 was exactly what disease strain we're working with. 43 00:01:33.750 --> 00:01:35.490 If we're going to start working toward vaccines 44 00:01:35.490 --> 00:01:36.740 or other treatments we need to know 45 00:01:36.740 --> 00:01:38.320 what we're trying to treat. 46 00:01:38.320 --> 00:01:40.250 What we do is actually go out to the farms 47 00:01:40.250 --> 00:01:41.083 during an outbreak. 48 00:01:41.083 --> 00:01:42.246 We take swabs from these fish. 49 00:01:42.246 --> 00:01:44.030 We bring them back to the lab 50 00:01:44.030 --> 00:01:46.463 and we can actually isolate that bacterial DNA. 51 00:01:47.320 --> 00:01:48.963 Once we have that we put it through a PCR 52 00:01:48.963 --> 00:01:51.180 so it creates millions and millions of copies 53 00:01:51.180 --> 00:01:54.170 of this DNA so that we can start to analyze it. 54 00:01:54.170 --> 00:01:55.418 Once we have these copies 55 00:01:55.418 --> 00:01:56.730 we can run it through a gel, 56 00:01:56.730 --> 00:01:58.110 which you can see in this middle picture. 57 00:01:58.110 --> 00:02:01.200 What we're looking for is where these white bands show up. 58 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:03.410 The placement of those white bands tells us exactly 59 00:02:03.410 --> 00:02:05.130 what strain of the disease we're working with. 60 00:02:05.130 --> 00:02:07.789 One of the major things that we have found so far 61 00:02:07.789 --> 00:02:10.550 is that since this disease was first isolated 62 00:02:10.550 --> 00:02:13.870 in the Delta in 2013, we've seen a complete shift 63 00:02:13.870 --> 00:02:16.080 from the original strain to a brand new strain 64 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:17.355 in just five years. 65 00:02:17.355 --> 00:02:18.803 This has important implications 66 00:02:18.803 --> 00:02:21.950 because if we start to create treatments or vaccines 67 00:02:21.950 --> 00:02:23.107 based on this original strain, 68 00:02:23.107 --> 00:02:25.744 there's no guarantee that they will work on this new strain. 69 00:02:25.744 --> 00:02:29.321 As I mentioned Mississippi produces over 60% 70 00:02:29.321 --> 00:02:32.390 of Catfish in the United States. 71 00:02:32.390 --> 00:02:34.800 So anything that effects our local economy, 72 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:36.470 will likely have a ripple effect in to both 73 00:02:36.470 --> 00:02:38.650 national and global economies as well. 74 00:02:38.650 --> 00:02:39.551 Thank you. 75 00:02:39.551 --> 00:02:42.134 (upbeat music)