Breeding is not just for profit, but critical for more efficient utilization of limited resources – interview with Morten Rye

Dr. Morten Rye is the Managing Director in Akvaforsk Genetics (AFGC) and the Director of Genetics in Benchmark Genetics, AFGC’s parent company.  Besides that he is a man who is passionate about aquaculture and has been so since the early days of his career as a scientist. In AquaIMPACT he is leading Work Package 3. “I’ve spent my entire professional career working with genetics in aquaculture. I studied animal genetics …

Aiming for accuracy with genomic selection – companies and researchers share the same goal for better fish

Akvaforsk Genetics, formally Akvaforsk Genetics Center (AFGC) and Mowi are both part of the AquaIMPACT consortium and working closely with genomic selection – one of the tools we see have significant impact in aquaculture industries today – and more so tomorrow. AquaIMPACT communication staff sat down to discuss with two key people, Morten Rye from Akvaforsk Genetics and Ashie Norris from Mowi. Click the links below and read about their …

What happens now in AquaIMPACT? Have a look to the plans for near future actions

WP1 Genomic Innovations: Enabling commercial-scale genomic selection Wageningen University. WP Leader: John Bastiaansen. Data collection in commercial environments is an important activity for the first year of WP1. Families have been produced for trout, salmon and parental fish have been selected to produce sea bass and sea bream families later this year. Many of these fish will be genotyped to show the impact and opportunities of genomic selection for health, …

Cooperation on the horizon! Get to know the three projects working on Sustainable European Aquaculture 4.0

AquaIMPACT has initiated interaction with the two of its sister projects funded from the same Horizon 2020 Innovation Action call ‘Sustainable European aquaculture 4.0: nutrition and breeding innovations.’ On October 9th 2019, the three initiatives are organising a joint session at Aquaculture Europe 2019 (AE2019) congress in Berlin to present their approaches and commonalities. See more: https://www.aquaeas.eu/uncategorised/402-welcome-to-aquaculture-europe-2019 The three consortiums are AquaIMPACT, FutureEUAqua and iFishIENCi. These projects complement each other …

Genomic selection: Break-through technology to make selective breeding more effective

AquaIMPACT objective: In AquaIMPACT, we develop economically sustainable, commercial-scale implementation of genomic selection for genetic improvement of Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, gilthead seabream and European seabass in practical breeding programmes. Main impact: More effective breeding programmes that are able to improve especially fish traits related to resource efficiency, disease resistance, fish welfare and product quality. Current state: Genomic selection is already applied in terrestrial animals, such as dairy and beef …

Who are we – company presentation I: Akvaforsk Genetics Center AS, and Mowi ASA

Akvaforsk Genetics is a leading commercial provider of genetic improvement services to aquaculture industries worldwide, with extensive experience from design and operation large scale selection programs across Europe, Asia and the Americas. The company was established in the late ‘90s. Akvaforsk Genetics has designed or serviced cost effective selection programmes covering most major farmed aquaculture species including salmonids, seabream, seabass, turbot, Atlantic cod, tilapias, carps, and marine shrimp (L. vannamei, …

New publication out about the European sea bass: a key marine fish model in the wild and in aquaculture

An AquaIMPACT-funded article about European sea bass, one of the core species studied also in this project, has been published online. The article is written by Marc Vandeputte from INRA, Pierre-Alexandre Gagnaire from University of Montpellier and François Allal from IFREMER MARBEC. A link to the full article can be found below the summary. Summary: The European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) is a marine fish of key economic and cultural …

Want to work in AquaIMPACT? Open post-doctoral position to research genomic selection in aquaculture

The Roslin Institute in University of Edinburgh has opened a post-doc positio to research genomic selection in aquaculture. Apply by 1st of May 2019! Link to the full announcement can be found below. A post-doctoral position is available to research genomic selection in aquaculture, with a focus on disease resistance in rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon. The post is within Professor Ross Houston’s laboratory at The Roslin Institute, University of …

AquaIMPACT boosts the efficiency of European aquaculture with genomic and nutritional enhancements

Global challenges redirect our eating habits towards diets that include more healthy foods, such as fish. EU consumers eat approximately 24.3 kg of farmed fish each year (in 2016). Global seafood consumption has more than doubled in the past 15 years, and aquaculture production is still growing 5-6 % annually. EU needs actions to provide sustainably produced fish more efficiently, and to boost the business around aquaculture. Major impact within …