ABSTRACT: Managing salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis outbreaks is a crucial part of salmon aquaculture in sea cages. Treatment management strategies can be optimized with the aid of salmon-louse population dynamic models. These models, however, need to be calibrated and validated with biologically meaningful parameters. Here, based on a time-series of lice data, we estimated 2 essential model parameters: the external infection pressure and the salmon-louse population growth rate for each active salmon farm site in the period 2011 to 2018 in the Faroe Islands. External infection pressure was found to vary between farm sites and ranged on average from 0.002 to 0.1 lice salmon^-1 d^-1. Further, external infection was significantly correlated with the total number of gravid lice in the Faroese farm network. Salmon-louse population growth rates were found to vary between farm sites and ranged on average from 1.7 to 5.4% d^-1. These model parameter estimates are crucial in developing a salmon-louse population dynamic model for the Faroe Islands, and the method to estimate these parameters may be applicable in other aquaculture regions.

中文翻译：

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法罗群岛鲑鱼养殖场的外部感染压力和鲑鱼虱子种群增长率的估算

摘要：管理鲑鱼虱Lepeophtheirus鲑爆发是在海水网箱养殖鲑鱼的重要组成部分。可以借助鲑鱼虱种群动态模型来优化治疗管理策略。但是，这些模型需要使用生物学上有意义的参数进行校准和验证。在此，根据虱子数据的时间序列，我们估计了两个基本模型参数：法罗群岛每个活跃鲑鱼养殖场在2011年至2018年期间的外部感染压力和鲑鱼虱子种群增长率。发现外部感染压力在不同养殖场之间有所不同，平均范围为0.002到0.1虱鲑^-1 d ^-1。此外，外部感染与法罗群岛农场网络中妊娠虱子的总数显着相关。鲑鱼虱种群的增长率在不同地点之间有所不同，平均范围为1.7％至5.4％d ^-1。这些模型参数估计对于开发法罗群岛鲑鱼虱种群动态模型至关重要，估计这些参数的方法可能适用于其他水产养殖地区。