Shrimp farmers need animals that grow fast and survive the stress of farming. Animals that grow quickly enable more production cycles while survival is key to dependable and bountiful harvests. The combination of these traits is a holy grail for the industry but progress from breeding efforts has been lopsided.
Growth rate is highly heritable and simple to measure. Improving survival, however, is more challenging. Consequently, much of the germplasm released by breeding companies grow fast but lack tolerance to stressors prevalent in aquaculture. Genetic gains would be more dramatic if the relationship between growth and survival were better understood and utilized.
This presentation will discuss our use of genomics to study growth and survival of commercial P. vannamei families in production environments. After observing the impact of growth-focused selection on survival we have chosen to implement a breeding program that prioritizes survival before growth. Finally, we compare the genetic signatures of stocks selected specifically for survival to genetic diversity collected from around the world.