Christian Wallace has been working with fish trials and Salmon lice since 1991 and has been a Study Director at the VESO research facility since 1999.

He is dedicated to ethical/lean trial design to ensure that client objectives are met and that results comply with any regulatory requirement.

Sigmund Sevatdal joined VESO first period from 1990 until 2000 and then from 2006. He holds a PhD on sea lice resistance mechanisms and bioassays.

He developed the first in vitro bioassays with sea lice to monitor sensitivity profiles. Sigmund is dedicated to the planning and design of sea lice studies both in vitro and in vivo laboratory tests.

Claudia Venegas has worked in VESO since 2008, DVM, holds a PhD in Applied Biological Science, with a major in Fish Diseases/Health/Pathology, and is a WAVMA Certified Aquatic Veterinarian (CertAqV). 

In her role as Scientific Coordinator at VESO Chile, Claudia has been dedicated to the oversight of all the trials and acting as Project Manager of different studies including Caligus rogercresseyi.

VESO contract reasearch lab is a world leading facility, committed to the conduct of state-of-the-art trials with fish and fish pathogens.

Our main focus is on know-how of host-pathogen interactions and on conducting experimental challenge procedures with the pathogens that commonly affect aquaculture of cold water species.

A particular point of focus has been on establishing standardised in vivo and in vitro trial models with the two sea lice species Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus rogercresseyi.

In vivo challenge procedures are ultimately used to establish efficacy, safety and tolerance profiles of vaccines and pharmaceuticals, effects of functional feeds and to generate biomarkers for identification of genetic resistance motifs against sea lice in constructed heterogeneous fish populations. 

Optimal design for assessment of your product may require the combination of our in vitro bioassays with in vivo fish/parasite trials in our challenge facilities.

Our aim is to provide valid results using well-proven experimental models that reflect a real-life situation in commercial salmon aquaculture.

VESO’s sea lice team is highly experienced and has worked with L. salmonis and C. rogercresseyi for many years.

This ensures that trial design and data will be collected and stored according to the stringent quality standards for pharmaceutical research.

Please don’t hesitate to contact our dedicated team if you would like to discuss any sea lice-related topic.