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NTVA SPECIAL AWARD 2015
On 1 June 2015 the Board of the Norwegian Academy
of Technological Sciences decided to award the year’s
special prize for pioneering technology to professor
Trond Øivind Jørgensen for his achievements in making
Norwegian aquaculture free of antibiotics.
At the NTVA anniversary meeting on Wednesday 9
September held at the Lerchendal Estate in Trondheim,
professor Trond Øivind Jørgensen and the research
community in Tromsø were honoured for their
contributions.
Norwegian aquaculture now uses minimal amounts of
antibiotics, not by chance, but rather due to revolutionary
research. Thirty years ago the Hitra Disease was
Norwegian aquaculture’s biggest problem. Great amounts
of dead salmon in fish farms caused difficulties for the
owners, banks, private investors and the environment.
The large amounts of antibiotics used to combat the
epidemic threatened the industry’s reputation and its
further development.
The research community was perplexed, and many causes
such as stress and production flaws were proposed.
However, the Hitra Disease proved to be a bacterial
disease. Financed by the “Healthy Fish” research
programme, in 1987 the University of Tromsø developed
an effective vaccine. Two years later the same research
community introduced a vaccine against Furunculosis,
an international fish disease. Antibiotic usage then fell
from 30 to 40 tons to a minimum at which it has stayed
since. Few innovations have been as important for the
development of robust Norwegian aquaculture.
Professor Trond Ø. Jørgensen at the Norwegian College
of Fishery Science (NCFS) at the Norwegian Arctic
University, Tromsø, led development of the vaccine, and
the prize recognizes the achievements of a many young
dedicated researchers at the University of Tromsø, FORUT
and AL/Alpharma.
Laksemerder, Photo Johan Wildhagen, Norsk sjømat
Professor Trond Ø Jørgensen and NTVAs president Eivind
Hiis Hauge