Induced spawning of various farmed fishes has been consistently accomplished through the injection of hormone, e.g. Asian seabass, grouper, pompano etc. However, this procedure requires the catching and anaesthetizing of fish prior to injection, a process which adds handling stress and increase the risk of death to the precious brooder fishes.
Oral hormone delivery system has offered a convenient, familiar, and painless alternative to manual injections. At MAC, past studies on oral administration of LHrHa3, a type of GnRHa, had been performed on Asian seabass with some successful spawning events, however the results were inconsistent due to the rapid degradation of hormone in gastrointestinal system.
Encapsulation technology is a new method to reduce hormone degradation in fish gastrointestinal system and deliver hormone while reducing handling stress of broodstock fish.