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AquaVision challenge – breeding is the key fundamental Published: 26 September, 2008
Hugh Currie, chairman of Landcatch Ltd, was commenting ahead of AquaVision, the industry's biennial business summit held in Stavanger, Norway, for which this year's chosen theme is:'Know the Fundamentals - Create Your Future'.
'The whole industry, across many species, is entering a period of enormous challenge and it's vital that we apply all our technical, knowledge-based resources to keep aquaculture moving forward,' said Mr Currie.
'The fall-out from the credit crunch is already having an impact on consumer buying patterns, including food purchases. In addition, the rising cost of energy and raw materials is putting enormous pressure on the costs of production. It's against this background, therefore, that I believe we need to combine every possible industry resource to promote aquaculture as a sustainable and profitable enterprise which is attractive to investors.
'Too often in the past our industry has tried to address problems on a piecemeal basis. When combating a new disease, for example, the unilateral solution has been to develop a new vaccine. When looking for better feed utilisation, producers have turned to innovative feed products. It's been the same when dealing with fish mortality, environmental impact, growth rates and so on.
'Many of the solutions which have been produced have been very effective, of course. We would have been a lot worse off today without the industry's many new feeds, vaccines, etc. My point, however, is that the contribution of breeding has been overlooked when, in fact, the fundamental fitness of each individual fish should be viewed as the foundation upon which every other innovation should be built.
World class pedigree breeding programmes, which select parent broodstock for their all-round performance, produce individual fish with an enhanced capability of delivering improved results in the commercial environment.'
Genetic Discovery Gives Welfare and Performance Benefits in Salmon
4th February 2008
Significant improvements in the welfare and commercial performance of Landcatch Atlantic Salmon are being achieved by the Scotland and Chile-based breeding company, Landcatch Natural Selection Ltd. (LNS).
LNS is the first company to successfully locate a major gene which affects resistance to infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN), a discovery which is now being used commercially to further improve IPN resistance in Landcatch Atlantic salmon.
Initially unveiled in headline terms at AquaNor 2007, as a ‘quantum leap’ in salmon breeding, full details of the breakthrough are now explained in a scientific paper carried in the latest edition of the internationally respected Journal ‘Genetics’. (Houston et al. (2008) Genetics 178:2) and available on the “Genetics” website
Click Here to view paper
The successful location of this important gene is the result of collaboration between geneticists at LNS and scientists at Roslin Institute and the Institute of Aquaculture, Stirling University, whose combined research was based on over 10 years of data and DNA samples collected from pedigree Landcatch Atlantic salmon.
One key discovery is that the identified gene accounts for over 20% of the total variation in IPN resistance within salmon families. The effect of the gene within some individual families, however, is much larger. LNS have used this information to enhance their long-established selection procedures, enabling the company’s geneticists to identify fish with better levels of resistance to IPN, and other viruses, than ever before.
“This is the first time that genetic markers have been used in marker-assisted selection in a commercial breeding programme for fish,” said Dr Alan Tinch, LNS breeding programme director. “It’s an extremely valuable advance which is already delivering significant welfare improvements and enhanced commercial performance.”
For more information please contact:
Chris Mitchell
Email. cmitchell@swim-back.com
Telephone. 01259 272022
