SBIR-STTR Award

The Aquaculture industry is hampered by the lack of an effective automated injection vaccine delivery system. The purpose of this project is to learn how to motivate fish to enter an automated vaccination system. OBJECTIVES: To study the response behaviors of juvenile fish to physical and environmental stimuli, and to exploit these behaviors to produce a working prototype volitional entry device that will allow fish to enter an automated injection vaccination system without human handling or anesthetic. APPROACH: The approach is to complete 6 tasks that will answer the technical questions required to establish feasibility as well as meet the technical objectives. Task 1 will investigate effective motivation stimuli strategies for each species. Task 2 is to assemble a portable and reconfigurable volitional entry device that will allow the study of fish behavior. Task 3 will be to conduct small scale experimentation with each species. Task 4 will identify the optimal Volitional Entry Device for each species. Task 5 will be to construct prototype Volitional Entry Devices for each species. Task 6 will be to write final reports and terminate Phase I