BROODSTOCK SELECTION FOR IMPROVED GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF TRIPLOID, GROWTH HORMONE TRANSGENIC ATLANTIC SALMON.

AquaBounty Canada, is working toward commercial deployment of a rapid-growth, genetically-engineered Atlantic salmon known as AquAdvantage Salmon. The proposed benefits of these fish include lower costs associated with cultivation and the potential for increased profits for the industry.

Considering the future for commercial production, work has begun to develop a family-based genetic improvement program based on traditional selective breeding techniques aimed at improving the growth performance of the AquAdvantage Salmon product. In 2009, work began to build the foundation of a family-based breeding program involving determination of the likelihood and predictability of the performance of the reproductively sterile triploid AquAdvantage salmon based on performance of their fertile diploid parents and siblings. Each year, growth performance data has been collected for diploid and triploid siblings and it is clear that sufficient variation exists within and between families to enable family-based selection for the fastest growing transgenic triploids.  In 2014, a quantitative genetic approach was incorporated in order to maximize the available infrastructure at the broodstock facility and most importantly, to incorporate the improved genetics in to the commercial production pipeline in the most efficient manner.  Heritability of weight at harvest size and the correlation between diploid and triploid growth performance have been refined and used to estimate genetic gain/generation and to calculate estimated breeding values.  

The results from this program to date as well as the use of SNP genotyping to assign parentage in triploid Atlantic salmon and the successful incorporation of cryopreservation for milt extracted from whole gonads will also be discussed.