Acronym NA
Category
Marine Biotechnology
Title Slektskapsanalyse med høy-tetthets genomiske verktøy: Spôring av rømt oppdrettsfisk og effektivisert avlsarbeid - Parentage assignment with high-density SNP genotypes: Tracing of escapees from fish farming and optimized breeding programs Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Jørgen Ødegård Coordinator email NA
Coordinator institution
NA
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2015 End year 2020 Funding (€) € 164,000 Website NA Summary One of the major challenges in salmon farming is escapees, which gives risk of genetic and environmental interactions with wild salmon. In Norway, the number of recorded escapees per year is substantial, and likely underestimated. Traceability in salmon farming is therefore of large interest, both to identify the origin of the escape and to prove innocence. AquaGen has decided to use genetic tracing, as this does not require any physical marking and can be used for tracing throughout the entire life-cycle of the fish. The method is based on individual fish farmers receiving unique families. By identifying parents of the escapees through genotyping one can therefore also identify the source of the escape. The method has to handle large datasets of dense genotypes with thousands of potential offspring/parents.
The method can also be extended to tracing over multiple generations, e.g., by identifying grandparents of farmed-wild crosses. This methodology can also be used to prove illegal crossing of AquaGen fish into other farmed strains.
AquaGen also offers sterile salmon eggs in the market. These fish cannot reproduce with wild strains, but escapes are still unwanted, and there is therefore a need for genetically traceable sterile fish. Sterile fish is produced by pressure treatment of fertilized eggs, which results in the eggs having two chromosome copies from the mother, but only one from the father. The methodology for genetic tracing therefore needs to be adjusted to handle this.
Fry of farmed fish are tiny, and physical tagging is not not possible at young age. In selective breeding, identity must be known, which is acquired by raising families in separate tanks until they reach tagging size. This limits the number of families that can be produced, and may generate environmental tank-effects. Genetic tracing allows mixing of families on a much earlier stage, as their identity can be established later through genotyping.
Keywords
Tagging;
Escapes;
Cage aquaculture;
Fish;
Open sea aquaculture;
Genetic;
Salmon;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
Marine Region Map
