Progress On Vaccine For 'ich

[Rafael Dilone]

Read this a while back and thought it would be something nice to share http/www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=16439205781
If this truly is possible it will help the hobby so very much. What are your thoughts on it?

 

[AstonN24vantage]

that's great. i just think that the vaccine is going to be very expensive.

 

[nitrogen15]

Cool stuff. Making the vaccine targeted enough to be cost-effective for farmers would be the biggest challenge, I think. Getting the vaccine into food would be pretty cool, like they mention in the article. There are already antibacterial fish foods out on the market, and some anti-parasite meds that are supposed to attach to the ill fish rather than dose all of the tank water.

Another issue would be manufacturing enough antigen. Grinding up ich parasites wouldn't be practical on a large scale. If they can get a gene sequence for an ich-specific protein, though, they could produce that in the lab really cheaply, and it could get pretty affordable.

 

[StandbySetting]

Not very practical is it?

It'd be much cheaper and easier just to dose the water column with an anti parasitic medication.