New Strains, New Gains For Nile Tilapia Producers

A strain of tilapia that has been recently developed by\r\nWorldFish in Egypt is producing significantly improved fish yields, lower feed\r\nconversion ratios and improved profits for farmers.

The international nonprofit recently developed a new\r\nselective breeding programme in the Egyptian region of Abbassa, in a bid to\r\nimprove on their well-known and widely-adopted Genetically Improved Farmed\r\nTilapia (GIFT) strain, which was initially developed for production in Asia.

The result, known as Genetically Improved Abbassa Nile\r\nTilapia (GIANT), was developed using the same genomic techniques and a new\r\nstudy on the performance of the ninth generation of the GIANT broodstock\r\nsuggests it is performing exceptionally well.

The authors of the study, published under the title ‘Assessment of\r\nthe impact of dissemination of genetically improved Abbassa Nile tilapia strain\r\n(GIANT‐G9) versus commercial strains in some Egyptian governorates’,\r\nin the latest issue of Aquaculture Research, looks at the impact that\r\ndistributing broodstock of the strain to 11 broodstock multiplication centres\r\n(BMC’s) in five governorates. These centres then disseminated improved mixed‐sex\r\nfry to 160 tilapia hatcheries which supplied all‐male fry to 1,500 fish farms\r\nin 2017.

In their study, the WorldFish researchers\r\npresent results of an impact assessment of G9 of the strain in 83 of these fish\r\nfarms in four Egyptian governorates – Kafr El‐Sheikh, Fayoum, Behera and\r\nAlexandria.

Their research indicates that the use of GIANT in all\r\ngovernorates “achieved significantly higher (18.8%) fish yields (12.3%–26.4%)\r\nand 15.7% lower FCR (feed conversion ratio), reflecting a positive impact on\r\ntheir net profits compared with those who used commercial strains”.

Moreover, they note that: “Overall, fish farmers who stocked\r\nGIANT had significantly higher average fish sales (5.567 US$/ha) than those who\r\nstocked non‐improved commercial strains (5.192 US$/ha) in all governorates”.

However, they also note that farms in the four different\r\ngovernorates performed differently, with those in Kafr El‐Sheikh and Behera\r\nshowing less of an improvement, which – they conclude –“indicates that some\r\nhatcheries may have crossed the different strains, which lowered the\r\nperformance differences.”

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As a result, they add: “To get an objective analysis of the\r\nperformance of the GIANT, it is recommended that similar assessment be\r\nundertaken with new generations of the strain supported by on‐farm performance\r\ntrials.”

Source : The Fish Site