Selective Breeding - Selective Breeding in Aquaculture - Aquatic Species Versus Terrestrial Livestock

Aquatic Species Versus Terrestrial Livestock

Selective breeding programs for aquatic species provide better outcomes compared to terrestrial livestock. This higher response to selection of aquatic farmed species can be attributed to the following:

• High fecundity in both sexes fish and shellfish enabling higher selection intensity.

• Large phenotypic and genetic variation in the selected traits.

Selective breeding in aquaculture provide remarkable economic benefits to the industry, the primary one being that it reduces production costs due to faster turnover rates. This is because of faster growth rates, decreased maintenance rates, increased energy and protein retention, and better feed efficiency (Gjedrem and Baranski 2009). Applying such genetic improvement program to aquaculture species will increase productivity to meet the increasing demands of growing populations.