Enhancing land-based culture of coho salmon through genomic technologies: An economic analysis
2021
Bendriem, Nathan | Roman, Raphael | Sumaila, U Rashid
The selection of salmon broodstock can enhance certain economically important biological traits over generations, via the use of genomic technologies. Information related to flesh quality, disease resistance, growth rate, and feed conversion ratio, has been collected for coho salmon (Onchorhynchus kisutch) and may be applied to breeding programs in British Columbia. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS) are two technologies used to identify breeders based on genes directly controlling performance traits. This study aims to quantify the net present value of these technologies, applied to coho salmon broodstock in recirculating land-based systems. We compute the value of these genomic technologies by taking the difference in profits for farmed coho salmon production, when the biological traits mentioned above are enhanced through selective breeding. Results indicate the value of the genomic technologies is around $700 to $6,280 per tonne of coho salmon produced, depending on the targeted trait. Flesh quality yields the greatest change in net present value, followed by growth rate. Our findings may offer a means to meet part of the growing demand for seafood through increased production of coho salmon and reinforce the importance of an ecologically sustainable and economically viable aquaculture industry in British Columbia.
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