September 2011
Hendrix Genetics is now in aquaculture!
Record attendance at Aqua Nor 2011!
Are the two linked? The organisers of the world’s largest aquaculture exhibition, Aqua Nor, reported a record number of visitors this year. The Nor Fishing Foundation claimed that representatives of 61 nations visited the exhibition in Trondheim Spektrum during the four days it lasted in August with a total of 3,500 more visitors than in 2009.
Brisk trade was conducted on the Landcatch Natural Selection stand where the directors of the company welcomed visitors from across the globe who were keen to discuss the company’s specialist breeding and genetic services and high performance salmon eggs and smolts, in addition to learning more of Hendrix Genetics, the new owners of Landcatch Natural Selection.
Multi-species breeding company, Hendrix Genetics, is proud to be part of the aquaculture breeding industry and aims to help the world meet a growing demand for food by supporting producers of animal protein with innovative and sustainable genetic solutions.
September 28th 2011 - Press Release
Boxmeer, the Netherlands & Saint Laurent de la Plaine (49290), France.
Families Hendrix and Grelier join forces in poultry breeding and distribution
Hendrix Genetics B.V. and Financière Grelier Holding s.a.s. have completed their agreement to join forces in poultry breeding and distribution.
Hendrix Genetics acquired 100% of the Grelier Groupe. Jean-Marc and Dominique Grelier to become shareholders of Hendrix Genetics next to Hendrix family (majority and control), Sofiprotéol (the financial institution of the French oil and protein industry) and management.
An exclusive negotiation period was already announced in December 2010. The projected cooperation allows to strengthen the groups and to secure their growth because of complementarities in activities and countries.
This project is a result from the joint reflection by the shareholders of the two groups, which show synergies and significant growth for the resulting group in the coming years. The new combination will have around €300mio sales and more than 2,000 employees.
Download Full Press Release
June 10th 2011 - Press Release
Boxmeer, the Netherlands & Netherton, Langbank, Port Glasgow, Scotland.
Hendrix Genetics B.V. Completes acquisition of Landcatch & LNS
Today Hendrix Genetics have completed their acquisition of Landcatch & LNS (Landcatch Natural Selection) from Lithgows Limited.
This step marks an important milestone for Hendrix Genetics and Landcatch / LNS.
“Today, Hendrix Genetics enters the world of aquaculture breeding, a natural fit with our existing multi-species portfolio.” stated Thijs Hendrix, Président of Hendrix Genetics.
“It is a great day for our customers and employees as we are now linked with a global leader in animal genetics. We are excited by the possibilities this brings.” commented Hugh Currie, Managing Director of Landcatch & LNS.
Landcatch & Landcatch Natural Selection (LNS)
Landcatch is a leading supplier of Atlantic salmon eggs and juveniles. Its land-based Breeding and production sites in Scotland have unmatched biosecurity standards.
LNS (Landcatch Natural Selection) is a specialist breeding company, which applies advanced selective breeding technologies to the Landcatch strain of Atlantic salmon. LNS also provides its technologies and expertise in other fields of animal breeding.
Hendrix Genetics B.V.
Hendrix Genetics, headquartered in Boxmeer, the Netherlands, is a multi species breeding company, with 5 divisions: layer breeding (ISA), pig breeding (HYPOR), turkey breeding (HYBRID), aquaculture breeding (LANDCATCH & LNS) and poultry distribution (SFPA, INTEGRA, JOICE AND HILL). The company is dedicated to providing innovative and sustainable genetic solutions to the animal protein sector in over 100 countries with operations and joint ventures in 22 countries and more than 1500 employees. www.hendrix-genetics.com
For more information please contact:
Dave Libertini
Vice President, Americas
Hendrix Genetics
650 Riverbend Drive, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Telephone: + 1 519 578 2740
dave.libertini@hendrix-genetics.com
Hugh Currie
Managing Director
Landcatch Natural Selection Limited
The E Centre,
Cooperage Way,
Alloa FK10 3LP,
Scotland
Tel: +44 (0) 1259 272 022
hugh.currie@hendrix-genetics.com
June 2011
Breeding Robust Salmon
Sea Lice are a continuing challenge to the salmon industry around the world. Sea Lice infection is a health and welfare problem for growing fish and treatment is costly. The Aquaculture Genetics Company Landcatch Natural Selection Ltd (LNS) is breeding-in Sea Lice resistance to Landcatch salmon as a genetic solution to this global problem.
Control of Sea Lice infection is complex and multifactorial. Factors such as nutrition, available treatments, Sea Lice load and resistance of lice to treatment, as well as genetics, influence the extent of problems seen at a particular location. Genetic resistance to infection can be used to reduce the impact of Sea Lice in combination with other management methods. Selective breeding makes incremental improvements in resistance to develop Atlantic salmon that are better suited to control of Sea Lice than their predecessors.
Pilot studies in collaboration with the University of Glasgow and Stirling Institute of Aquaculture with families from the Landcatch Scottish programme from 2005 to 2009 have shown that the level of Sea Lice infection is inherited and that families differ in their innate resistance. The graph below shows how families vary in their genetic Sea Lice score (or breeding value) after a controlled exposure to Sea Lice. Families that have fewer Sea Lice per fish are classified as resistant, and those with greater Sea Lice counts are susceptible. A small number of families appear to be highly susceptible. By breeding from resistant families and rejecting susceptible families genetic resistance to Sea Lice infection can be steadily increased generation by generation.
Genomic analysis of these results suggest that major genes (Quantitative Trait Loci - QTLs) may exist for Sea Lice resistance that could be used to enhance selective breeding of improved strains of salmon. Data collected from pedigree fish in the Landcatch Chilean breeding programme have been used to show that resistance to Sea Lice is inherited despite the different species of lice in Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Since 2009, genetic information on Sea Lice resistance has been available in the Landcatch Scotland and Landcatch Chile breeding programmes. Susceptible families have been prevented from breeding as part of a balanced approach to improving the robustness of the Landcatch strain.
Landcatch Ltd has recently embarked on a major project to further understand the genetics of Sea Lice resistance. Working in collaboration with commercial partners and centres of excellence in genetics and veterinary science: The Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh, Stirling Institute of Aquaculture and the University of Glasgow a grant from the European Fisheries Fund has been awarded to investigate the genetics of Sea Lice resistance using Landcatch pedigree populations. This project will aim to identify QTLs for Sea Lice resistance and investigate associations between Sea Lice resistance and other commercially important traits.
LNS aims to provide customers with fast growing, efficient salmon with built-in robustness and resilience. LNS were the first aquaculture breeding company to identify the IPN (Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis) resistance QTL and applied this to selection of eggs for the 2009 season. Use of Sea Lice resistance information for selection of the broodstock producing eggs for the 2010 season resulted in further improvement in the robustness of Landcatch salmon.
LNS keeps on extending the data collected and technology applied to breeding programmes. Customers will continue to receive eggs and smolts that incorporate the latest technology to improve robustness and resilience. Every year LNS takes a further step forward in improving the cost effectiveness and reliability of salmon production.
Dr Alan Tinch
Breeding Programme Director
LNS Ltd
January 2011
UK Scientists Close In on Salmon Virus Resistance Gene
A team of UK researchers are closing in on a gene that affects resistance to a viral disease in Atlantic salmon.
The Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis (IPN) virus is a major killer in commercial salmon farming causing high levels of mortality in young salmon in all markets worldwide. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh (including the world renowned Roslin Institute) and the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling are collaborating with Geneticists at Landcatch Natural Selection Ltd (LNS), the UK-based International Salmon breeding company to find this gene.
The team were first to publish evidence of the presence of an IPN resistance gene in 2008; the beneficial version of the key gene appears to essentially prevent the death of salmon from IPN. For the first time in aquaculture, LNS used these results to apply marker-assisted selection, an advanced form of selective breeding, to improve resistance to IPN in their commercial strains.
The collaboration has continued with work underway to find the precise location of the gene in the salmon genome. New methods, based on the use of novel DNA sequencing technologies, were used to identify additional genetic markers, closer to the resistance gene. These improved Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers have recently been applied to families from the LNS breeding programme to select the most resistant fish for breeding.
Dr. Ross Houston, who is leading the research at The Roslin Institute said “By using the latest DNA sequencing technology, we have now identified improved genetic markers which are accurate predictors of IPN survival in aquaculture salmon populations. This brings us much closer to identifying the gene responsible for resistance”.
While researchers at Roslin and Stirling concentrate on finding the gene, geneticists at LNS are using the new markers to further improve their ability to identify salmon resistant to IPN for breeding. “Our work with Roslin and Stirling has allowed continuous improvement in the technology being used on breeding farms in Scotland, Chile and Norway” said Dr Alan Tinch, Breeding Programme Director of LNS. “We have been able to identify fish genetically resistant to IPN in our own and customer breeding programmes using natural methods, without resorting to Genetic Modification”.
Such work shows that leading-edge genetic and genomic technology can be applied to modern selective breeding of farmed salmon to sustainably improve health, welfare and performance.
Further Information:
Landcatch Natural Selection Ltd and its sister company Landcatch Ltd apply selective breeding to develop improved strains of Atlantic salmon for supply to customers around the world. Advanced genetic and genomic methods are applied to pedigree breeding stock in Scotland and to customer breeding programmes around the world. The Landcatch breeding programme aims to deliver sustainable improvement in performance of farmed Atlantic salmon by selective breeding for balanced improvements in disease resistance, welfare and efficiency.
The Roslin Institute is a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) National Institute of Bioscience associated with the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies (R(D)SVS), the number one-ranked Veterinary School in the UK in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.
The Roslin Institute aims to enhance the lives of animals and humans through world class research in animal biology and its mission is to gain fundamental understanding of genetic, cellular, organ and systems bioscience underpinning common mechanisms of animal development and pathology, and to drive this into prevention and treatment of important veterinary diseases and develop sustainable farm animal production systems.
The Institute of Aquaculture is internationally recognised for research and post-graduate training, and is a world leader in fish health management. It regularly provides advice to the Scottish Government, and was a major contributor to the SEERAD “Strategic Framework for Scottish Aquaculture” and the EU “Strategy for the sustainable development of European Aquaculture". The IoA has evolved with the aquaculture industry and its research output contributes directly to improved fish survival, increased productivity and profitability.
For more information please contact:
Tara Womersley, University of Edinburgh Press and PR Office,
Tel: +44 (0)131 650 9836; email: tara.womersley@ed.ac.uk
Dr Alan E Tinch, Landcatch Natural Selection Ltd,
Tel: +44 (0)7917 858283; email: aetinch@swim-back.com
December 2010
New owners for Landcatch & LNS
Hendrix Genetics, a high profile multi-species breeding company based in the Netherlands, has signed a Letter of Intent with Lithgows Ltd. to acquire Landcatch & Landcatch Natural Selection (LNS). Completion is expected in the first half of 2011, subject to standard consents.
“Hendrix Genetics and Landcatch are a natural fit,” said James Lithgow, Chairman of Lithgows Ltd. “We share a very similar vision and believe that combining the efforts of our excellent production and R&D teams with those at Hendrix Genetics will make Landcatch and LNS even more effective and, ultimately, more successful in supplying superior salmon eggs and juveniles to salmon producers worldwide.”
Thijs Hendrix, Président of Hendrix Genetics, agreed: “We are excited to be able to enter this significant and growing sector and are confident we can bring new and innovative ideas to a company which has a long and successful track record in aquaculture.
“This acquisition fits very well with our multi-species breeding strategy and we look forward to becoming a leading aquaculture breeder, as we have done in turkeys, layers and pigs. With Landcatch and LNS we can create a new platform with a new horizon in aquaculture breeding and life sciences.”
Founded in the late 1970s by Sir William Lithgow, Landcatch is a world renowned supplier of genetically proven salmon eggs and juveniles. LNS also commands global respect as a specialist breeding company, applying advanced selective breeding technologies to the Landcatch strain of Atlantic salmon. The business also provides its technologies and expertise to many other fields of animal breeding.
Hendrix Genetics, headquartered in Boxmeer, the Netherlands, have both owned and joint venture operations in 22 countries with more than 1,500 employees and supports the animal protein sector in more than 100 countries. Structured in four divisions, the company is a global leader in layer breeding, pig breeding, turkey breeding and poultry distribution.
The full press release is available here: Download PDF
View image: Click Here
May 2010
Pancreas Disease Success reported by Landcatch Natural Selection
Landcatch Natural Selection (LNS), the Scottish international salmon breeding company, has recently been getting recognition within the industry for the transfer of its award winning IPN resistance breeding success to its commercial stocks. This work, carried out in conjunction with The Roslin Institute, which cloned Dolly the sheep, led to the identification of genetic markers for a quantitative trait locus (QTL) which accounts for over 80% of the variation in IPN resistance. Fish with the resistant variant of the QTL have better survivability when exposed to IPN in freshwater or seawater. Every generation of Landcatch eggs and smolts are selected to have a resistance built-in at the IPN QTL. This is an industry first!
More recently the company has turned its attention to solving the problem of pancreas disease (PD), a very different condition. PD is primarily a chronic disease of the heart and skeletal muscles, although the pancreas is also affected. It is caused by an alphavirus. These viruses are more familiar in association with insect borne infections in man and animals but, of late, the PD alphavirus has become a severe problem to salmon farmers. The virus is believed to be transferred horizontally from fish to fish in the sea and can be responsible for major economic losses. In Norway for example, where it is particularly serious, losses in 2009 have been estimated to exceed $150 million.
A commercial vaccine has now been developed against the PD alphavirus, and it shows some level of protection although there are concerns about the duration of this. Using this expensive vaccine can still result in high mortalities in severely affected areas (80% is possible in the worst situation, although 20-40% is more normal). Since there is no suitable therapy, farmers generally have to resort to reduced feeding and careful, stress free, husbandry in the hope of nurturing a crop back to health. Apart from mortality losses, the resultant poor growth of survivors also affects final profit margins from the crop.
In view of the successes achieved with its IPN resistance selective breeding work, LNS has turned its efforts to PD resistance, to see what can be done to improve resistance to this disease in the Landcatch strain of salmon.
Working with PD is much more difficult than with IPN. Since it is a more chronic condition, with many fish suffering damage without dying, and since there is no good experimental infection model with clear-cut results, the normal means of testing siblings for resistance is not reliable. If field testing is used, there is no guarantee that there will be a natural outbreak at a particular site where trial stock are located, so this also is rather uncertain in output. Thus the Landcatch scientists, again working with colleagues in The Roslin Institute and in Ireland, have had to depend on field data from locations in which selected Landcatch fish have been placed where it is known that the disease can be expected to occur and where fish from other origins are also available for benchmarking against, in order to obtain comparative information on the success of the selected stock.
Initial studies were in Ireland, where there has been a long history of losses from the disease. Here an independent study indicated that there were significant differences in response to challenge by PD between the two most popular strains of salmon farmed in Ireland. Figure 1 shows typical results monitored and published by an independent group of scientists.
Click Here to See Figure 2
Figure 1. Comparative mortality of two strains of salmon in four PD outbreak sites
in Ireland in 2003-4. Strain B has been reported to be Landcatch.
Subsequently, in western Norway, where PD is now a very serious problem, smolts supplied by Landcatch were studied on a site in Austevoll. These fish were stocked in autumn of 2008 alongside PD vaccinated smolts from another source and once they had settled they showed the typical good growth pattern of Landcatch fish. During the following summer (2009), when fish were averaging 2kg and thus of very considerable economic value, PD struck the whole area. Fish went off feed, growth ceased and mortalities began to appear.
The Landcatch fish had NOT been vaccinated, which helped to ensure that any differential mortality demonstrated only the value of genetic enhancement and was unrelated to vaccination. The results were remarkable. Losses in Landcatch fish on the site were less than 5%. The mortality range across the adjacent cages, containing the fully vaccinated fish from another source, was between 15-40%.
Click Here to See Figure 2
Figure 2. Comparative mortality from pancreas disease on a Norwegian site where unvaccinated Landcatch smolts had been placed alongside vaccinated fish from a local source.
Unvaccinated Landcatch smolts have been placed in equally challenging PD environments in other areas of Norway over 3 years and each time have shown remarkably high levels of resistance to infection and very low, or indeed no, resultant mortality. LNS collaborates with experts in virology such as Dr David Graham of the Northern Ireland Veterinary Institute, where the PD virus was first isolated and world renowned research institutions such as The Roslin Institute to investigate genetic resistance to virus infection. Identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with resistance to PD and their use in breeding will further enhance the high level of resistance observed in Landcatch stock. This process was pioneered by LNS for IPN resistance. Landcatch are continuously looking to add resistance for specific diseases such as PD to the range of traits that are taken into account as part of our individual broodstock fish selections. If QTLs for PD resistance are found, then it will be possible to further increase inherent genetic resistance to PD at every subsequent generation of the four-year breeding cycle.
In the meantime, however, commercial eggs and smolts, derived from the families with the same genetically enhanced resistance to viral disease observed in the Landcatch stocks at Hordaland are now available from Landcatch, and while PD is not yet conquered, field data to date indicate that using Landcatch stock, along with the PD vaccine, can be expected to significantly reduce losses from this scourge, even while the scientists seek the specific QTL(s) that will allow much greater accuracy for individual broodstock selection.
For further information please contact:
Alan Stewart on +44 (0)7767380234 May 18 2010
Download PDF
October 2008
Landcatch health policy is planned and proactive
A commitment to stringent standards of fish health management and biosecurity are essential for anyone seeking to establish and maintain a sustainable and successful aquaculture business.
This was the message delivered in Chile on October 9 by Dr Marianne Pearson, head of veterinary services at Landcatch.
“An integrated approach to fish health management and biosecuity is required to control fish disease, both on-farm and at a national level.,” she told delegates to the International Seminar “Sanitary Aspects Critical in the Production of Salmon in Chile” held in Puerto Montt, Chile. “There are, however, no margins for error in combating global diseases and related health issues, particularly if we’re to realise our potential as a major food source for the future.”
Focusing primarily on broodstock health management and biosecurity operations in her own company, Landcatch, Dr Pearson pointed out that the foundations of national fish disease controls in Scotland were established as long ago as 1937. Since then, new business orders and regulations, many of which come from EU headquarters in Brussels, have been passed at regular intervals to create the highly structured disease control framework which governs aquaculture in Scotland today.
“The maintenance of Landcatch broodstock health standards is, in many ways, a microcosm of what happens at a national level,” she said. “Our on-farm approach is shaped by adherence to EU legislation, UK legislation, national surveillance programmes and a voluntary industry code of good practice. In addition, we have created the Landcatch veterinary health plan and biosecurity initiatives which form the basis of our system of health monitoring at farm level.
“As a business, we are planned and proactive in our approach to fish health management. We take the view that aquaculture businesses cannot afford to be merely reactive to an ever changing environment of existing and emerging diseases.
“Applying this philosophy to our business in a practical manner, our fish health calendar and biosecurity activities, are all geared to minimise the risk of disease introduction to our breeding base at Ormsary in Argyll, or any of our production units, This is essential for our continued success as a recognised international provider of salmon germplasm.
“We are also committed to minimising the impact of disease by making sure we’re developing the Landcatch strain of salmon to be resistant to disease challenges such as IPN, PD and SRS, which are all too commonly faced by fish farmers today.”
June 2008
Harvest weights averaging an impressive 5 kilos have been achieved by Landcatch-bred salmon on-grown by Lingalaks at their Sltkjelen site in Hardanger Fjord, close to Bergen.
Delivered to Lingalaks during late March and early April last year as 96-gram smolts, the stock were harvested in early June this year at an average weight of 5 kilos. This is an excellent result for Rolv Haugarvol in a part of Norway which has often been blighted by pancreas disease.
May 2008
Freedom Foods Renewal
All Landcatch production sites in Scotland have successfully had their certificates renewed for the Freedom Food farm assurance and food labeling scheme monitored by the RSPCA.
“We applied for and achieved Freedom Food status for the first time last year,” said Neil Manchester, Landcatch Operations Director. “Our customers appreciate the welfare assurances associated with Freedom Food and we’re delighted to be entering our second year of fully approved status.”
Landcatch also has GLOBALGAP approval, a private sector scheme covering voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe. GLOBALGAP is designed to reassure consumers about how food is produced, not only in minimizing detrimental environmental impacts, such as reducing the use of chemicals, but also ensuring a responsible approach to both health and safety and animal welfare.
May 2008
AquacultureUK
The 21st and 22nd of May saw a welcome return of the UK aquaculture Industry get-together in Aviemore. The first AquacultureUK exhibition was held at the MacDonald Aviemore Highland Resort in three exhibition halls. Landcatch and Landcatch Natural Selection were present and hosted a prize draw in aid of the Sandpiper Trust. The draw was made on Thursday 22nd May and the prize winners were as follows:
Lakeland Ltd. Two Virgin Atlantic air tickets – London to New York return.
Ms Gillian Rodger. One night dinner bed and breakfast for two people plus Spa day at the Highland Resort.
Miss Kate Lithgow. Salmon fishing for four rods on the River Teith at Lanrick.
Fish Farmer Magazine. A shooting experience for two people at Rothiemurcus Estate
Mr. Mike Newstead. A meat hamper from Ormsary Estate
Marine Harvest Ltd. A smoked salmon from Glenfeshie Seafoods
The Sandpiper Trust is a great cause and the charity trustees are extremely grateful to members of our Industry and others who have generously donated over £2,000 in raffle ticket receipts. Landcatch Ltd would like to add a note of thanks to everyone who supported the prize draw.
