Selective Breeding can improve desirable traits of cultured species by deliberately choosing superior parents or selecting for specific traits in subsequent generations. Tilapia, a crucial species in global aquaculture, benefits greatly from this approach due to its short life cycle, rapid growth, controlled reproduction, and palatable flesh. Leveraging genetic tools and selection methods can significantly enhance the resilience and productivity of cultured tilapia populations, particularly in adapting to changing environmental conditions.
In this context, strategies for managing tilapia breeding programs vary from rudimentary to highly sophisticated, each offering different levels of genetic improvement. This presentation aims to outline essential considerations for evaluating the application of genetic tools in designing new or refined breeding programs, aligning them with producers’ needs while maximizing genetic gains.
Mass selection is a basic approach that involves identifying exceptional individuals within a population based on priority traits such as growth. However, increasingly popular strategies involve creating families and conducting selection within them, enabling simultaneous evaluation of multiple traits and more precise and rapid improvement. Moreover, the advent of genomic resources has revolutionized breeding with genomic selection, allowing direct assessment of genetic profiles and enhancing selection accuracy and efficiency. Traits like growth, disease resistance, robustness, and flesh quality in tilapia stand to benefit significantly from genomic selection strategies, which utilize genomic resources to calculate precise breeding values based on pedigree or genomic relationships.
On another front, gene editing technology offers unprecedented precision in modifying genes, allowing for the introduction or suppression of desirable traits with unparalleled accuracy. The Center for Aquaculture Technologies (CAT) has developed technologies capable of producing animals with desired traits, as well as ensuring sterility and creating mono-sex populations.
In summary, current genetic technologies provide a spectrum of options for establishing advanced selective breeding programs in tilapia, each demanding varying levels of input and investment with corresponding potential returns. Selecting an appropriate genetic improvement design necessitates careful consideration of breeding objectives, program capacity, available budget, and the suitability of genetic tools to support the chosen approach.