Health & Welfare
Calling for a National Broodstock Improvement Network
A National Broodstock Improvement Network for aquaculture could help to break the link between inbreeding and hatchery size.
A National Broodstock Improvement Network for aquaculture could help to break the link between inbreeding and hatchery size.
Disease problems on shrimp farms may be partly driven by an interaction between management practices that cause inbreeding in small hatcheries and the amplification by inbreeding of susceptibility to disease and environmental stresses.
In general, benefits from genetic increases in growth rate result from better farm environments. Breeding programs should focus selection on genes expressed favorably in the environment that most affect farm profit.
Shrimp breeders often protect their genetic investment by selling broodstock that will accumulate increasing levels of inbreeding in successive generations.