November 22, 2010

Australia's barramundi selective breeding programme advances

The Australian Barramundi Farmers Association (ABFA) and the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) have agreed to proceed with the development of a selective breeding programme that may result in over 10% growth rate per generation of selection.

ABFA noted that a sector wide breeding programme based on a model of a breeding nucleus run by a non commercial breeding company will increase the industry's cooperation, productivity and sustainability, together with the country's global competitiveness. 

ABFA president, Marty Phillips, forecasts that the programme's benefit-cost ratio could reach 18:1 in ten years' time. "We expect that the programme will result in a much more efficient and sustainable industry, particularly in Queensland and the Northern Territory where the largest production occurs," he said.

Major genetic traits such as fillet yield and eating quality will be taken into consideration in the programme. In its creation, the focus would be on making it cost efficient and sensible to result in a vigorous genetic improvement.

As this requires a long term commitment, the industry can only gain the advantages of the programme after several years. There will be pilot scale test spawning next January with funds contributed by the Australian Seafood CRC.

The idea is for the programme to support itself financially once selectively bred stock goes on sale to the sector.

Nick Robinson created the plans for the programme and they were scrutinised by the industry at a meeting in Cairns recently. The programme will make use of the latest genetic knowhow and hatchery technology.

As the biology of barramundi is exceptionally challenging for selective breeding; for example, all barramundi mature first as males and differentiate into females in later years; the scheme needs planning for the latest generation of males and females to spawn together. Pioneering solutions are already in the works and research will be the focus in the early stages of the scheme.

The programme will use the best hatchery and grow out facilities available and priority will be given to biosecurity and backup of the selectively improved families. Families from each generation will be tested in multiple venues as a biosecurity precaution and to collect performance information.

The project will give the best of the latest generation of selectively improved stock to the industry. This is deemed as indispensable for increasing the efficiency, profitability and competitiveness of the local industry, which faces competition from Asia where a selective breeding scheme has begun.