Since graduating I’ve started a PhD with my MSc programme leader, Dr Daniel Merrifield.
My PhD focuses on assessing the efficacy of a feed additive to promote fish health and robustness. I have run an experimental feeding trial with rainbow trout, assessing the effects of different inclusions of a feed additive to the diets of these fish for an 8 week period. The first year has been spent analysing the results of this trial, and I am about to start my next feeding trials with Nile tilapia and Atlantic salmon.
Running the trial was a massive responsibility and required many hours of hard work to ensure the animals were looked after and their health was maintained. I improved my skills in animal husbandry within a recirculating aquaculture system, as well as other analytical techniques that I had learned throughout my undergraduate and masters course, such as histology, immunology and molecular biology.