SAPRO-BAL: Shared Approaches and Platform with Resources for Oomycetes diagnostics and surveillance in the Baltic Sea region

Saprolegnia pathogens are causing severe outbreaks and mass mortality in wild and farmed salmon and sea trout in the Baltic Sea region. With recurring outbreaks and no effective treatment, saprolegniosis remains one of the largest infectious threats to fish populations, particularly in a changing climate.

SAPRO-BAL is funded by the Swedish Institute, SI and Baltic Sea Neighbourhood Programme. The project aims to strengthen surveillance of Saprolegnia pathogens in the Baltic Sea region by building capacities and developing diagnostics methods on both national and regional levels. Through close collaboration among experts from five partner organizations in Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Poland, the SAPRO-BAL partnership aims to:

• Collect Saprolegnia pathogen samples across the partnership region.

• Apply targeted next-generation sequencing of pathogen samples.

• Apply camera monitoring of selected rivers to assess prevalence of saprolegniosis symptoms in wild fish populations.

• Build a platform with shared resources, including reproducible laboratory protocols, pathogen sample collections, data resources and data analysis workflows.

• Develop diagnostics methods and improved surveillance.

SAPRO-BAL joint resources will facilitate generation of extensive and comparable data from Saprolegnia outbreaks across the partnership region. Such data and findings will further aid development and finetuning of diagnostics and monitoring tools, contributing to better surveillance of infections caused by Saprolegnia pathogens in salmonid fish species in the Baltic Sea region.