Genetic progress already made by breeding programs was quantified for production, body composition and feed utilisation related traits. The impact of these changes on farm profit, nutritional needs and environmental effects were quantified. The results are exploited as advertisements of breeding programs and to encourage further investments on breeding.
Several advancements were made that aid breeding program managers to implement genomic selection in Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, gilthead sea bream and European sea bass. Novel protocols for recording traits under commercial conditions (e.g. disease resistance, product quality) were developed. Automated phenotyping device, smart-computational methods and genotyping strategies were demonstrated to reduce phenotyping and genotyping costs while limiting the impact on selection accuracy. Practical production plans, costs and benefit calculations, and return times of investments of implementing genomic selection were assessed for the partners' breeding programs. To aid in implementing the developed methods, a software was developed to assess the costs and benefits of alternative breeding designs. These methods are exploited by breeding programs or provided as a service by the service companies.
Performance and health of fish fed 'future diets' with functional additives and limited amounts of fish oil and fish meal were documented. The tested pre-products and novel diet formulations are being developed for further commercial use by the feed companies. Modulation of fish gut microbiome was shown through flexible diet formulations and genetic selection, and microbiota holds a promise to be an indicator to be used in diet development and assessment of fish health. The microbiota analysis is provided as a service by AquaIMPACT partners.
A bio-mathematical model was developed that quantifies the impact of selective breeding on the need to change feed composition. Data on fish performance and diet composition from hundreds of studies were used to calibrate the FEEDNETICS(tm) software. This software allows to develop more sustainable and cost-effective feeds, and allows fish farms to benchmark in silico alternative commercials feeds in terms of fish performance, flesh quality, waste, and feed costs. The software is available through licensing and as a pay-per-service basis.
Consumer studies were performed in three countries to assess the perception of consumers on alternative breeding, nutritional and rearing practices and fish products. In general, consumers react positively to the methods developed in AquaIMPACT.
Active dissemination has been practiced via 67 news articles in our Newsletter, 36 scientific publications, social media platforms (X: @aqua_impact) and via webinars. AquaIMPACT generated two policy briefs relevant for the industry, and a Breakfast Policy Briefing event was organised in the EU parliament (
https://projects.luke.fi/aquaimpact/materials/policy-briefs/(si apre in una nuova finestra)). A total of 13 Business Plans were generated. See our promotional video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsuyVkzdfd4(si apre in una nuova finestra)
