The Impact of Mucosal Health Monitoring across the aquaculture value chain

In aquaculture, the key to sustainable and profitable fish farming lies in the health of mucosal barriers - specifically, the skin, gills, and the gut. These barriers are the frontline of the fish's immune system, directly impacting fish welfare, growth, and resilience to diseases.

With over a decade of research and more than 15,000 data points across multiple species, our extensive database offers unparalleled accuracy in monitoring fish health, enabling proactive management from the earliest stages of production to harvest. Whether you're managing smolt, RAS systems, or open-sea operations, VeriBarr™ gives you the objective data you need to make informed, strategic decisions.

With VeriBarr™ you get insights into the health of your fish up to 4-6 weeks before traditional methods can detect any signs of disease.

Here’s how our services add value to various stakeholders:

  • Enhanced Fish Health and Welfare: Regular monitoring of mucosal barriers helps in the early detection of health issues, allowing time to organize logistics or change strategies, reducing disease outbreaks and mortality rates.



    Optimized Feed:
    Understanding mucosal barrier health enables farmers to adjust feeding strategies, detect dysregulation before it becomes chronic, enhance nutrient absorption, measure certain nutrient effects and reduce feed waste.

  • Water Quality Management:
    Mucosal health monitoring helps in assessing the impact of stocking density or water quality on fish health, allowing for better management before a logistical challenge arises. VERIBARR™ has been used to measure baseline health for multiple production batches in full RAS systems, providing directly comparable objective results. VERIBARR™ is especially suitable for gill measures.

    Disease Prevention:
    Early detection through mucosal assessments can lead to timely interventions, reducing the risk of disease spread in closed systems.

  • Improved Smolt Quality:
    Monitoring the mucosal health in hatcheries and smolt production systems gives early warning of changes to health and quality. VERIBARR™ is so standardized that it allows direct comparison between hatchery systems and routines to identify best practices or best locations. 

    Reduced Mortality Rates: Early identification and mitigation of health issues translate into higher survival rates.

  • Product Development:
    Standardizing the health of the fish before they enter a trial as well as after helps to differentiate if it is the product or the initial health of the fish which has contributed to the outcome. Effects of single ingredients, innovative recipes or pre- and probiotics can be tested for statistically significant differences on barrier health.   

    Market Differentiation: By promoting feeds that are optimized for mucosal health, companies can differentiate their products in a competitive market.

  • Targeted Treatments:
    Data on mucosal integrity can guide the development of targeted treatments and vaccines, improving their effectiveness.

    Regulatory Compliance:
    Providing evidence-based health monitoring supports compliance with increasingly stringent health and safety regulations. VERIBARR™ is especially suitable for measuring gill health.

  • Innovation and Integration: Standardizing the health of the fish before they enter a trial as well as after helps to differentiate if it is the technology or the initial health of the fish which has contributed to the outcome. Equipment providers can use data from mucosal health monitoring to optimize or develop new technologies that integrate seamlessly with existing aquaculture systems, enhancing their functionality and efficiency.

    Custom Solutions:
    With specific insights into the health needs of aquaculture operations, providers can tailor equipment solutions to better meet the demands of fish and their farmers.

  • Risk Assessment:
    Detailed health data enables better risk assessment for investment and insurance purposes, leading to more informed financial decisions.

    Sustainability Metrics:
    Evidence of proactive health management supports claims of sustainability and welfare, which are crucial for modern aquaculture operations.

  • Improved Industry Standards:
    As a fish-based health standard, VERIBARR™ has already been globally and digitally applied to over 12 commercially farmed fish species in trials ranging from lab scale to industrial scale and generational studies across production stages in RAS, semi-closed or flowthrough systems and semi-closed and open sea cages.  Utilizing detailed health data from monitoring technologies like those offered by Quantidoc enables regulators to establish and update industry standards, ensuring better welfare and environmental compliance.

    Evidence-Based Policy Making: Access to comprehensive health monitoring data aids in crafting policies that are more aligned with the actual conditions and needs of the fish produced in aquaculture, leading to more effective regulations.

Fish Farmers

Stay ahead of disease with early warnings

With Veribarr, you get insights into the health of your fish up to 4-6 weeks before traditional methods can detect any signs of disease. By continuously monitoring gills, skin, and gut, Veribarr provides early warning signs, helping you act before problems arise, reducing mortality, and improving overall fish health

RAS Operators

Optimize fish health and system efficiency

Veribarr helps you track how water quality, biomass density, and other system factors influence your fish’s barriers, giving you the data you need to optimize your RAS systems. You can prevent disease outbreaks by identifying critical health thresholds before they impact production

Feed Producers

Verify the impact of your feed on fish health

Test and validate the effect of your feed on key mucosal barriers like gills, skin, and gut. Veribarr enables you to demonstrate the impact of specific ingredients, ensuring better growth performance and optimized health for your customers’ fish. Veribarr is a crucial tool for proving the efficacy of new formulations in real farming environments

Smolt producers

Document smolt health and ensure survival

With Veribarr, you can document the health of smolt from hatchery to sea transfer. The technology focuses on critical barriers such as gills and skin, assuring that smolt are robust and ready for the challenges of sea life. Document significant improvements in survival rates post-transfer

Health Service Providers

Prove the efficacy of treatments

Veribarr enables health service providers to accurately monitor and verify the effects of treatments, including vaccines and medicinal interventions. By monitoring the barriers, Veribarr ensures that treatment plans are working as intended and provides data that can refine and optimize health interventions

Technology providers

Optimizing technology with barrier health insights

Standardizing fish health both before and after trials is essential for determining whether the results are driven by the technology itself or the initial condition of the fish. QuantiDoc’s VeriBarr™ technology offers precise, objective data on mucosal health, enabling technology and equipment providers to accurately assess the impact of their systems.

Banks, investors and insurers

Reducing financial risk through health monitoring

VeriBarr™ provides reliable fish health data, enabling more accurate risk assessment and financial forecasting. By integrating these insights, insurers can tailor coverage, and investors can confidently back sustainable, profitable projects. QuantiDoc’s data-driven approach reduces uncertainty, ensuring better financial decisions and long-term profitability.

Regulatory bodies

Supporting regulatory standards with health monitoring

VeriBarr™ is designed as a scalable standard for industrial purposes, with an established measure of "normal". Veribarr results can be compared across systems, species, tissues, sites and time. Veribarr helps ensure consistent development of the product and gives regulatory bodies a consistent and statistically reliable standard measure. Veribarr is "best practice" for assessing barrier health.