In vitro CULTURE OF FISH LOUSE (Lepeoptheirus salmonis) IN ATLANTIC SALMON (Salmo salar L. ) HOST CELL LINE

Abstract

The salmon louse (Lepeophtherius salmonis), is a crustacean ectoparasite of salmonids and causes significant economical losses in Atlantic salmon farms. The aim of this study was establishing the in vitro culture and explants of infective stage of L.salmoins. The skin epithelial cell line of the Atlantic salmon was made and the sterilized chalimus stage was added for attachment. An experimentally was tried to produce the cell culture of the chalimus using growth medium. Chalimus attachment on Atlantic salmon fibroblast and epithelial cell line was observed. The supernatant which was collected from the chalimus attached wells screened by using SDS-PAGE, showed the protein (60kd) band which have been not reported in control without chalimus attached. The chalimus attachment was observed in ASE-W cell line but not CHSE-214 and RTG cell line which showed that Atlantic salmon was more susceptible for L. salmonis infection and this infection was species specific. The chalimus cell culture showed no growth in the growth medium used. This study presents a novel approach to cultivate the infective stages of sea lice, the copepod did and the attached stage, the chalimus in vitro.