19 December 2014
FISHBOOST: Launching a large number of experiments
During the first months of the FISHBOOST project, a total of 14 experiments have been initiated in six EU-countries. These experiments focus on developing tools for genetic improvement of production efficiency and disease resistance in the main farmed fish species.
The experiments are based on recording economically important traits in farmed fish populations with known pedigrees and family structures. This allows effective analysis of genomics and quantitative genetics of the traits. The experiments focus on fillet yield, feed utilisation, survival, and lipid deposition in common carp, turbot, rainbow trout, gilthead seabream, and European seabass. For each species, a large number of families have been produced for the genetic analyses.
The experiments have been conducted in co-operation with the local aquaculture companies and breeding programmes:
-In Greece, “Andromeda S.A.” works on Gilthead seabream.
-In Czech Republic, “Klatovske Rybarstvi A.S.” works on the Common carp.
-In Finland, “Luke Natural Resources Institute” works on rainbow trout.
-In Spain, “Cluster de la Acuicultura de Galicia” works on turbot.
-In France, “Syndicat des Sélectionneurs Avicoles et Aquacoles Français”, “Ferme Marine du Douhet SAS”, and “Les Poissons du Soleil” work on Gilthead seabream and European seabass.
-The molecular laboratory analysis for family assignment is conducted by “Labogena - Laboratoire D'Analyses Genetiques pour Les Especes Animales” in France.
In several of these studies, the same sets of families are recorded for production efficiency traits as well as being challenged for major diseases. This is possible due to the large family sizes of the species, allowing each family to be split into two offspring groups to be recorded for different traits.
The experiments are expected to be completed within 2 years. Using the results from these studies, FISHBOOST will facilitate balanced and sustainable breeding programmes applying a wide set of traits, breeding tools and technologies.
By Antti Kause