Area of Expertise:
Dr. Emiliano Di Cicco is a Fish Health Researcher at the DFO’s Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo.
While a fellow with the Pacific Salmon Foundation, he developed the molecular viral disease diagnostic tool and the in situ hybridization tool which has enhanced researchers’ ability to move from agent to disease characterization in salmon.
Dr. Di Cicco along with a research team at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada led research into the Piscience orothoreovirus (PRV-1) in farmed and wild salmon in British Columbia. This virus has been associated with diseases in Pacific Salmon, including erythrocytic inclusion body syndrome (EIBS), heart and skeletal muscle inflammation-like disease, and jaundice/anemia in Japan, Norway, Chile and Canada. The team’s research suggested “that migratory Chinook salmon may be at more than a minimal risk of disease from exposure to the high levels of PRV occurring on salmon farms” (Di Cicco et al. 2018).
Select Presentation(s) / Publication(s):
Di Cicco, Emiliano & W Ferguson, Hugh & Kaukinen, Karia & Schulze, Angela & Li, Shaorong & Tabata, Amy & Gunther, Oliver & Mordecai, Gideon & Suttle, Curtis & Miller, Kristi. (2018). The same strain of Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV-1) is involved in the development of different, but related, diseases in Atlantic and Pacific Salmon in British Columbia.
Di Cicco, Emiliano & W Ferguson, Hugh & Schulze, Angela & Kaukinen, Karia & Li, Shaorong & Vanderstichel, Raphael & Wessel, Øystein & Espen, Rimstad & Gardner, Ian & Hammell, Larry & Miller, Kristi. (2017). Heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) disease diagnosed on a British Columbia salmon farm through a longitudinal farm study. PLOS ONE. 12. 10.1371/journal.pone.0171471.
