Aquaculture 2025

March 6 - 10, 2025

New Orleans, Louisiana USA

Add To Calendar 07/03/2025 14:00:0007/03/2025 14:20:00America/ChicagoAquaculture 2025DEVELOPMENTAL BIOMARKERS IN ATLANTIC SALMON Salmo salar FOR PREDICTION OF FAVORABLE TRAITS IN DOMESTICATED LINEAGES: GROWTH, SURVIVAL, AND TEMPERATURE TOLERANCEGalerie 6The World Aquaculture Societyjohnc@was.orgfalseDD/MM/YYYYanrl65yqlzh3g1q0dme13067

DEVELOPMENTAL BIOMARKERS IN ATLANTIC SALMON Salmo salar FOR PREDICTION OF FAVORABLE TRAITS IN DOMESTICATED LINEAGES: GROWTH, SURVIVAL, AND TEMPERATURE TOLERANCE

Robert D. Morefield*, Halli Bair, Heather Hamlin

 

University of Maine

School of Marine Sciences

360 Aubert Hall

Orono, ME 04469

Robert.morefield@maine.edu

 



Development and refinement of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) family strains that favor high survival and optimal growth are essential to the continued rise of the salmonid aquaculture industry in North America. Identifying relationships between traits of early life stages (egg and alevin) and market size fish will assist in refining broodstock lineages that favor desirable and limit unfavorable traits. In this study, we compiled an extensive suite of metrics on multiple families of Atlantic salmon to better understand the relationships between early life stages and endpoints of interest to the industry. The endpoints of focus include survival, growth, and temperature tolerance. Survival of eggs post-fertilization to hatch has seen a major decline in the previous decade and has become a serious bottleneck for the industry; salmon growth and growth rate are essential metrics for profitable salmon stock; and temperature tolerance is an important, but often overlooked, aspect of the future of the salmon aquaculture industry. In cooperation with the USDA’s National Marine Cold Water Aquaculture Center, whose Atlantic salmon selective breeding program has been in operation since 2003, this longitudinal study anticipates multiple comparative timepoints of familial siblings for correlative analysis beyond the current findings.