02/06/14: Major Breakthrough Announced In Battle Against Sea Lice

Salmon eggs with improved resistance to sea lice will be made available for sale later this year by leading aquaculture firm Landcatch in a major advance for the industry.

Landcatch and its scientific partners have applied a technique known as genomic selection - a method of screening the DNA of individual fish - to identify those that are most resistant to sea lice infection, one of the biggest problems facing the aquaculture industry.

The company announced to the UK industry’s annual conference Aquaculture UK in Aviemore that several million selected eggs will be commercially available by December, in Landcatch’s next spawning, to improve the resistance of the next generation of Atlantic salmon.

Landcatch, which has its headquarters in Ormsary in Argyll, and a genetics team based in Stirling, is pioneering work in the development of genetic and genomic selection tools for improving farmed salmon.

The latest development – another first for the Scottish company - is seen as a significant step in a long road that aims to reduce sea lice numbers to such an extent that they will no longer be a problem.

Dr Alan Tinch, director of genetics at Landcatch, told delegates at the conference that the industry may never get to the stage where farmed salmon are completely resistant to sea lice, but this development is a major advance in tackling the issue.

He said: “We are excited to bring this advance in technology to market and to take a step forward in reducing the impact of sea lice on welfare and performance of salmon.”As part of a strategic initiative to improve robustness, Landcatch was the first aquaculture company to pinpoint a QTL, or major gene, controlling the resistance of salmon to Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis (IPN).

Sea lice resistance featured as high priority in this strategy. The firm’s scientists also demonstrated that sea lice resistance is inherited and can be predicted using DNA markers. The latest advance shows that sea lice resistance is controlled by a handful of DNA regions with large effects, a hundred or so regions with small effects and thousands of regions with very small effects.

The Landcatch team takes a small fin sample from each fish and use a recently-developed SNP Chip to analyse more than 100,000 markers, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). These SNPs help scientists locate genes associated with disease and, subsequently, predict the sea lice resistance of individual fish to be used in breeding.

Dr Tinch added: “Salmon breeding takes a leap forward with the successful implementation of genomic selection for sea lice resistance.  We now have a high resolution digital quality image of the genetic value of each of our broodstock and predict with high accuracy which males and females are the most resistant to sea lice.”

Landcatch is part of Hendrix Genetics, the global, multi-species animal breeding organisation.

Collaborators in the project are the universities of Glasgow, Stirling and Edinburgh, (including The Roslin Institute and Edinburgh Genomics) and Affymetrix UK Ltd. The work was funded by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd.

02/06/14: Gills Creating, Nurturing, Growing

During Australian Healthcare Week 2014 recently GILLS highlighted that we should all be asking ‘Why are we not promoting good nutrition at all levels of healthcare? Pills and drugs are not necessarily the solution - education on good nutrition (especially fish & seafood) would have much greater impact.’

In the USA, 75% of the health care dollars goes to treatment of chronic diseases. These persistent conditions—the nation’s leading causes of death and disability—leave in their wake deaths that could have been prevented, lifelong disability, compromised quality of life, and burgeoning health care costs. The situation is no different in Australia.

To enhance this discussion the Seafood & Health Session of the World Aquaculture Adelaide Conference will be held on Monday 9 June and will hear from a range of researchers and commentators on this important subject.

GILLS is extremely pleased that research information only made available last week will be presented by researchers from the University of Adelaide's Robinson Research Institute who investigated the dietary patterns of more than 300 South Australian women to better understand their eating habits before pregnancy. The information confirms the importance of nutrition.

Vicki Clifton and Jessica Grieger will present on that information and will be joined by keynote speaker, Martin Bowerman (author of ‘Lean Forever’), José Fernández-Polanco and Roy Palmer. One of the presentations will also be delivered from the Committee on World Food Security High Level Panel of Experts (FAO) based on its ‘Report on Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition’.

“Seafood harvested from aquaculture is a complete nutrient package being the major source of animal proteins and micronutrients for many coastal populations and is a renewable and sustainable source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (DHA, EPA) for optimal brain development and the prevention of coronary heart disease. Additionally it is a unique and complete source of micronutrients (calcium, iodine, zinc, iron, selenium, etc.) and an important source of Vitamins (A, D, B group) generally scarce in rural diets. These are essential benefits which families should consume weekly to ensure a happy, healthy life and comply with dietary guidelines,” said GILLS Executive Director, Roy Palmer.

The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd.

02/06/14: Creating & Nurturing AwF for Growth

Aquaculture without Frontiers is pleased to announce its program for World Aquaculture Adelaide 2014 (WAA14) which will be taking place at the new Adelaide Convention Centre between 7 & 11 June 2014.

A Silent Auction will be held during the period of the WAA14 Trade Show and that will be our main focus for promotion and fund raising during the event. AwF volunteers will be encouraging people and companies to bid on a range of products, services and vouchers which will be detailed just prior to the event.

The session, Development, Welfare and Poverty Alleviation (AwF), has been sponsored by World Aquaculture Society (WAS) Premier Sponsor, Tyson Foods Inc., one of the world’s largest food suppliers as well as a leader in hunger and disaster relief. It will be held on Wednesday 11 June from 11.10am in Room 6 and will conclude with a meeting session before the ‘Goodbye Adelaide’ event at 5.30pm.

The session has speakers from Nigeria, India, Brazil, Seychelles, USA, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Australia and promises to cover a myriad of issues and case studies across the continents.

Of course Brazil is very much in the spotlight this month so it good to see that we will have four presentations covering small scale fish farming, the development of producers co-ops, production of Native Oysters and an overview of aquatic solutions to hunger and malnutrition in that country.

Solutions to poverty alleviation do not necessarily have to focus on creating food but can be about jobs, livelihoods and hope and the Indian presentations will take us down this path.

All together it should be a fascinating session, as AwF sessions tend to be, highlighting how many good people there are trying to solve these monumental problems. AwF Executive Director, Roy Palmer, will conclude the program by updating people with the latest information on AwF, including the promotion of the new Corporate Social Responsibility platform, and will invite people to stay to have a general meeting where we discuss the future directions of AwF.

Everyone is invited to come along and be absorbed by the goodwill, listen to the amazing stories of aquaculture activities which are making a difference in the world, and then share their ideas and concepts before we all make our way to the final event at WAA14.   

The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd.