CleanTreat ensures the safe use of compounds in the marine environment by purifying the medicine from the treatment water to undetectable levels. The CleanTreat system is the first of its kind to be used in aquaculture, and will be administered in conjunction with Benchmark's next generation sealice treatment, which is currently in late stage development. The system can also be used with most licensed bath treatments.
CleanTreat is packaged in a standard ISO shipping container which allows for modular installation on board well-boats, treatment barges and land based systems. The system ensures that treatment water is purified and detached lice will be filtered and collected, achieving the highest level of environmental safety and also reducing the risk of future development of resistance.
The treatment plan will firstly be launched in the Norwegian market. The trials will see leading producers pilot the new system and product at commercial scale. The worldwide market for salmon is estimated to be worth 10.7bn USD per annum and the estimated cost of sealice for the global market is estimated to be 1bn USD.
Malcolm Pye, CEO of Benchmark commented:
“Sea lice are a major challenge for the sustainable growth of the salmon industry. Our main objective as a company is to produce innovative treatments which ensure the good health and welfare of farmed fish, that are highly efficacious and have no significant impact on the environment.”
“The Benchmark Group has a growing toolkit of products and services, such as CleanTreat, alongside the launch in 2015 of sealice resistant salmon strains. Whilst there is no single 'silver bullet' to combat the sealice problem, Benchmark continues to invest in a range of new technologies to tackle the sea lice challenge, including biological control such as lumpfish production and vaccine development”.