Advances by Selective Breeding for Aquatic Species: A Review

During the last 40 years it has been shown that well planned family-based breeding programs yield high rates of genetic improvement for aquatic species. The genetic gain has been greater than 12% per generation for growth rate and for disease resistance when challenge tests are applied. The main reasons for the large genetic gains observed for aquatic species are their relatively high fertility and the natural existence of broad genetic variation for economically important traits, both of which allows a very high selection intensity to be applied. However, the genetic improvement of species grown in aquaculture is far behind that achieved for animals and plants. In 2010 less than 10% of aquaculture production was based on genetically improved stocks. Breeding programs for aquatic species should be family based and include new biotechnologies like genomic selection.