By JOHN O'CONNELL

Capital Press

Several companies would like to commercialize the fish feed additive the University of Idaho's Aquaculture Research Institute developed to protect trout in the early stages of their life from cold water disease.

Ken Cain, who oversees U of I's trout research, explained his team isolated and cultured bacteria from the guts of rainbow trout that serve as a natural defense against the disease. He said the product has a provisional patent and could be available to Idaho trout farms in the "not too distant future."

U of I President Duane Nellis and Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter point to Cain's agricultural research as the type of worthy breakthrough that could benefit from the new Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission.

IGEM seeks to create jobs by building partnerships among industry, higher education and government. Otter has recommended that $2 million go toward competitive university research under the direction of the Idaho Higher Education Research Council. He's asked for another $1 million for the Department of Commerce to "bridge the gap" between research publication and its commercialization.

So-called gap funding previously awarded by the state helped position Cain's feed additive to move out of the laboratory. In field trials, it nearly halved mortality to cold water disease, a bacterial infection that causes lesions in rainbow trout, steelhead and salmon and cost Idaho's fisheries about $10 million in 2010.

"There's very little funding out there that can bridge that gap between the lab components and actually becoming a marketable product and bringing companies on board that may be interested in that technology," Cain said.

Washington-based Aquatic Life Sciences is partnering with U of I to commercialize a cold water vaccine developed in Cain's lab that could be used in concert with the feed additive. Chief Operating Officer Randy Ownbey hopes to have the vaccine ready for commercial marketing this year. He said his company is also interested in producing the additive.

"We expect the trout industry will gain from it ... and we expect to gain from it as well," Ownbey said.

For agriculture, Otter envisions IGEM will facilitate commercialization of university research on crop threats such as nematodes and fungi.

"I see a real opportunity in the value added. Our farm gate right now is over $2 billion in the ag economy, but when you take a $6 bag of potatoes and run it through the value-added process and add all the innovation and technology you can, you turn those into 60 cents a pound french fries," Otter said.

Though Idaho State University President Arthur Vailas is most optimistic about how IGEM will help his institution's medical and energy research, he emphasized ISU conducts some agricultural research.

"Some of our professors are looking at mutants in genetic research that deals with wheat and corn hybrids," Vailas said.

He said ISU has also collaborated on agricultural research with U of I, including Cain's trout projects.