Maskon automated vaccination machine for farmed fish

To avoid the spread of disease in farmed fish, comprehensive vaccination is an essential tool. The task of vaccinating farmed fish, however, is demanding, labour-intensive and often requires prolonging the starvation period for the fish. With a more flexible system for vaccinating fish, higher quality fish can be produced with less disease.

Skala Maskon has designed and built a vaccination machine which reduces the need for manual labour to a single operator. This means that fish producers can more easily vaccinate their farmed fish at the optimal time in fish development, as opposed to having to wait until the technical set-up is ready.

The vaccination system is fully automatic and works by pumping the fish through a machine, meaning no manual handling of the fish is required.

The Skala technology allows vaccination to begin without waiting for a whole vaccination team to arrive on site in often remote fish farming locations. The machine, moreover, does not have the same capacity limitations as a team of humans, so it can continue vaccinating fish until a whole farm is covered. The machine can administer multiple vaccines in one operation, both abdominal and intramuscular.

The automated vaccination system means that fish can be kept healthy without having to pause its growth to wait for manual vaccinations. It moreover reduces the need for manual labour and saves on transport costs and emissions to individual fish farm sites. This helps to deliver high-quality fish to the market with a reduced environmental footprint.

The market for Skala Maskon’s vaccination machine is salmon and trout hatcheries all over the world. The annual production is approximately 500 to 600 million fish, all of which need at least one vaccine.

Skala Maskon designs, constructs and produces specialised machinery for a range of industries. The company was founded in 1991.