Is it possible to categorise the health of a mussel rapidly and non-destructively in the field?

A key challenge in the investigation of mass mortality events (MMEs) and the general study of mussel health is simply telling a sick mussel from a healthy mussel. It is therefore important to find a simple and effective screening tool that can be used in situ to monitor vulnerable populations without causing harm. The goal of this project was to meet this gap through the development of a tool for measuring the health of mussels, both at a population and individual level. The stress tester tool we developed measures value closure strength of the mussels as a proxy for condition. It is capable of tracking changes in population health and providing a metric for individual health status.

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