Kennebec River Biosciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Peter Merrill has joined their veterinary staff as Director of Professional Services and Regulatory Affairs. Dr. Merrill comes to KRB from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Washington DC, where he served Director of Animal Imports. KRB (formerly Micro Technologies, Inc.), located in Richmond, Maine, is a full-service laboratory with nearly 20 years’ experience and expertise in aquatic animal pathogen detection and disease management. The company serves clients in aquaculture, research, and fisheries management worldwide, and both develops and performs sophisticated bacterial, viral, parasitic and molecular assays used with aquatic animals of many types. KRB also provides import/export inspections and regulatory assistance, and employs two veterinarians who are able to produce custom vaccines tailored to the needs of a finfish facility or population. Dr. Merrill comes to KRB with 40 years’ experience as a marine biologist, originally specializing in finfish nutrition and physiology, and later in marine mammal physiology and disease. He received his veterinary degree from the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 1996. Since then, Dr. Merrill has worked in the field of aquatic animal disease and health management in many capacities, and was closely involved in implementing management strategies for infectious salmon anemia, a disease that threatened Maine’s many coastal fish farms between 2001 and 2007. Most recently, Dr. Merrill served as an aquaculture subject matter expert, and subsequently as Director of Animal Imports, for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). At KRB, Dr. Merrill will focus on developing biosecurity protocols and specialized vaccines as part of a comprehensive aquatic animal management approach for the company’s many and diverse...
