Aquaculture America 2020

February 9 - 12, 2020

Honolulu, Hawaii

SHRIMP GENETICS NOW AND IN THE FUTURE

 
Robbert Blonk* , Richard Towner and Alastair Hamilton
Hendrix Genetics Aquaculture B.V.
Villa 'de Körver', Spoorstraat 69
5831 CK Boxmeer ,  the Netherlands
robbert.blonk@hendrix-genetics.com

Historical global p roduction of shrimp has seen enormous growth, with a typical cyclical pattern in production volumes. This cyclical pattern is mainly caused by increasing and varying disease pressures compensated with new developments in technology in husbandry, feeds and genetics. Worldwide shrimp farming is now heading towards controlled production and intensification, in line with historical development in  longer established  domesticated  terrestrial and aquatic species to create stable production.

T he shift to intensive controlled environments also requires breeding programs to change .  We will demonstrate how g enotypes  interact with  culture environment  and  how breeding programs can  use this to optimise production in specific environments. To further improve the rate of change and to maximise production, l arge scale  shrimp breeding programs  should implement the latest genomic technology. I ntegration of genomic selection in breeding programs for terrestrial and other aquaculture species has enhanced the rate of genetic improvement.  Similar changes in the rate of genetic improvement can be expected for shrimp. However, integration of the multiple "omics" resources now available (genome assemblies, transcriptomes, linkage maps, and proteomes) is likely to be critical to exploiting these currently isolated resources. A t this stage,  in shrimp this  integration is at a much less advanced stage than other aquaculture species. Highlights and expectations of the recent advances in "omics" research ,  particularly  for the implementation of genomic selection, will be given.