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Project Summary
Summary of current projects managed by the Abalone Aquaculture Subprogram
Current Projects
Click on project to go directly to it.
2000/200 - Abalone Aquaculture Subprogram: facilitation, administration and promotion
Principal Investigator
Dr Ann Fleming
(Abalone Aquaculture Consultancy P/L, 91 Verdon St, Williamstown, VIC 3016)
Operational Objective: To efficiently and effectively manage the Abalone Aquaculture Subprogram to maximise the contribution of FRDC-funded research and development towards the growth, viability and economic benefit of the abalone aquaculture industry.
Strategies:
- By developing and maintaining strategic research and development directions.
- By developing new projects to meet strategic research and development directions.
- By providing a productive, cooperative, national research framework for all Australian abalone aquaculture researchers.
- By ensuring timely research and development outcomes and outputs that meet the needs of the stakeholders.
Communication Objective: To maintain a high level of effective communication between the subprogram leader, and its stakeholders and researchers.
Strategies:
- By providing effective meetings for communication and consultation between the subprogram leader, stakeholders and researchers.
- By providing effective media to ensure that project results/outcomes are widely known as soon as they become available.
- By ensuring that project outputs (extension products) are provided by researchers in a form that is quickly disseminated and easily adopted by industry.
- By ensuring that all stakeholders and researchers have a clear understanding of the subprogram’s objectives and research and development priorities, and management procedures.
- By reporting to the FRDC annually on the operations and activities of the subprogram (Annual Operating Plan).
Management Objective: To manage the subprogram’s activities in an efficient, effective, open and accountable manner.
Strategies:
- By developing and maintaining efficient, effective, open and accountable management procedures and systems.
Status
Funding for this project is due to finish in July 2003. An application for a further 3 years of funding will be submitted in the 2002 funding round.
Project Update
Go to Research and About the Subprogram within this site for further details on the status of the subprogram.
2000/202 - Development of spermatozoa cryopreservation techniques in farmed abalone
Principal Investigator
Dr Xiaoxu Li
(South Australian Research and Development Institute, PO Box 120, Henley Beach, SA 5022)
Project Objectives
- To develop cryoprotectants suitable for abalone spermatozoa cryopreservation.
- To establish reliable protocols for short and/or long term abalone spermatozoa cryopreservation.
- To evaluate the performance of progeny produced with cryopreserved spermatozoa.
- To extend the results to industry.
Planned Outcomes
- Increase in efficiency of hatcheries as only female broodstock are needed to spawn at most times.
- Increase in the chance of genetic improvement when crossing between different populations or different species which breed asynchronously.
- Reduced chance of disease translocation if broodstock and animal shipments are replaced by spermatozoa shipments.
- Facilitates the use of a more structured breeding program in which controlled reproduction is require, for example, using family selection and hybridisation techniques.
Status
Due to delays during the 2000/01 spawning season a request for a variation in all milestones was approved.
The final report and extension products are due 31st December 2002.
Related Documents
Project Update
Go to Project Update for further details on the status of this project.
2000/204 - The commercial control of spawning in temperate abalone
Principal Investigator
Dr Arthur Ritar
(Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute, Marine Research Laboratories, Nubeena Crescent, Taroona, TAS, 7053)
Project Objectives
- To determine the biological zero point (BZP) and the relationship between temperature and gonad development.
- To identify the temperature required to condition abalone over a set period of time.
- To develop protocols for the commercial control of spawning in abalone by temperature manipulation.
Planned Outcomes
- To reduce the unpredictability of spawning success, which currently has a major impact on the annual commercial production of spat on-farm.
- To reliably sawn selected animals as required, including commercial out-of-season spawnings, crossing selectively bred stocks, crossing species to produce hybrids, etc.
Status
Objective 1 is due to finish in September 2002.
Objective 2 has been expanded to assess the performance of spawning response after re-conditioning the same abalone during a second cycle. This is due to finish in March 2003.
The final report is due June 2003.
Related Documents
- Proceedings No. 9
- FRDC research and development News Article FRDC research and development News, Issue Volume 9, No. 3 July 2001
If you have problems downloading this file right click on it and select "Save Target As..". Then open from the saved file. - Conditioning Australian Abalone Broodstock: Best Practice Manual
- WA Fisheries report
Project Update
Go to Project Update for further details on the status of this project.
2001/254 - Selective breeding of farmed abalone to enhance growth rates II
Principal Investigator
Dr Xiaoxu Li
(South Australian Research and Development Institute, PO Box 120, Henley Beach, SA 5022)
Project Objectives
- Establish new families,
- Continue to maintain established families,
- Upgrade the managing system for easy maintenance, easy cross-reference, protection of the privacy of individual farms, etc.
- Collect data and determine genetic parameters for traits of economic importance and their correlations (if any), and
- Develop, respectively, the selection indexes for both greenlip and blacklip abalone with the data available. (The indexes will be used for selecting improved broodstock for commercial production and production of the next generation.)
Planned Outcomes
A) Outcomes:
For abalone hatcheries and nurseries:
- Decreased production costs as abalone from selected broodstock have a greater growth rate than normal abalone, this will shorten the retaining time of juveniles in the nursery stage before being moved to growout facilities; an operational cost saving.
- Improved market share as demand increases for fast growing strains.
For abalone growers:
- Decrease in production costs due to enhanced growth rates will lead to shorter production times for abalone of a given size, thus providing considerable savings on production costs.
- Improved market share due to increased abalone production.
For abalone aquaculture industry as a whole:
- The development of genetically improved stock will provide a greater consistency of product and predictability of production.
- The development of the selective breeding program in abalone would form a model for other aquaculture industries in Australia such as salmon, prawn and oyster industries.
B) Beneficiaries:
The successful conclusion of this project will have considerable benefits for the Australian abalone aquaculture industry. Using growth rate improvement as an example, 30% enhancement could be gained over three generations of selection. This could shorten the production cycle by over a year. The initial analysis in the document "cost benefit analysis for abalone selective breeding project" produced for the existing project shows that the costs/benefits over a 15 year period are 1:15, 1:30, 1:60 and 1:60 for project, industry, FRDC and research providers, respectively. For project these mean that every dollar invested either as cash or an in-kind should create A$ 15 return. For FRDC these mean that every dollar invested the FRDC should create 60 dollars return. This result is within the cost/benefit ranges for other existing genetic breeding projects with either aquatic or terrestrial species. The analysis was based on 1) current contributions from the funding organization (FRDC) and research providers, 2) costs for establishing and maintaining families required from participating farms, 3) benefit from a 10% improvement in growth rates per generation of selected broodstock, which was lower than the lowest enhancement rates in growth predicted for other abalone species, 4) the current abalone market prices, and 5) life cycle of the two farmed Australian species.
Status
This project commenced in December 2001. It continues on from the work achieved in the Phase I project.
The final report is due February 2004.
Related Documents
Project Update
Go to Project Update for further details on the status of this project.
2002/200 - Preventing summer mortality of abalone in aquaculture systems by understanding interactions between nutrition and water temperature
Principal Investigator
Ms Meegan Vandepeer
(South Australian Research and Development Institute, PO Box 120, Henley Beach, SA 5022)
Project Objectives
- Induce abalone mortality and/or bloat under experimental conditions to ensure a "control" exists for subsequent experiments.
- Examine the interaction between high levels of fermentable carbohydrate and temperature on abalone growth rates, mortality and haemocyte counts.
- Define nutritional treatments that may alleviate the effects of increased water temperature on abalone mortality including extrusion of dietary ingredients and immune enhancing diet additives such as antioxidants and mannan oligosaccharides.
- apply the results of experiments 2 and 3 to blacklip abalone.
Planned Outcomes
This project will result in:
- a cost-effective manufactured abalone feed that maintains abalone health and survival during periods of elevated water temperature;
- a range of ingredients suitable for use in manufactured abalone feeds that maintain abalone health and intestinal condition;
- Identified feed additives that increase abalone resilience to environmental stresses.
- an understanding of the interactions between abalone health, water quality, water temperature, stress and nutrition and remedial actions to optimize health and production efficiency.
Status
This project commenced in March 2002. The first objective is currently being addressed.
The final report is due September 2003.
Related Documents
Project Update
Go to Project Update for further details on the status of this project.
2002/201 - A national survey of diseases of commercially exploited abalone species to support trade and translocation issues and the development of health surveillance programs
Principal Investigator
Dr Judith Handlinger
(Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute, Marine Research Laboratories, Nubeena Crescent, Taroona, TAS, 7053)
Project Objectives
- To undertake, over approximately one year, a single-round health survey of abalone from representative wild groups of commercial abalone species throughout their range in 5 states, using statistically relevant samples appropriate to maximize the detection of serious diseases and define the disease agents present.
- To similarly examine equivalent samples from all abalone farms and reseeding operations in these states.
- From these to develop a database of abalone disease, their location and prevalence, then to present these findings to the wild and aquaculture industries and State and National government agencies, and to record them pictorially in accessible electronic format.
- To expand the pool of abalone health expertise by holding an initial training workshop for collaborating pathologists to facilitate the survey, and a national abalone health meeting to present disease and pathology findings to all relevant pathologists and health service providers, to ensure their adoption.
- Collaborate with the abalone aquaculture industry and state authorities in the development of cost-effective on-going health surveillance programs through collaboration with the abalone aquaculture industry and state authorities.
Planned Outcomes
- Knowledge of abalone diseases present in Australia and moderate knowledge of their current distribution and prevalence.
- Significantly improved diagnostic capability available to both abalone aquaculture and wild fisheries managers, as a result of the direct survey findings, the related training activities, and the collective approach to collation and interpretation of these and previous findings.
- a framework and sound basis for on-going health surveillance programs for the abalone farming sector to provide cost-effective access to diagnostic services, improved feedback for addressing on-farm factors affecting abalone health, and better assurances with regard to abalone health for farm planning, supply of other farm customers, and market access.
- Reduced production costs from reduction in losses and improved health of farmed abalone.
- a sound basis for decision making with regard to movement and testing protocols for interstate and intra-state movements, quarantine issues, and reseeding operations, which will benefit both the farmed and wild abalone industries, and improve public confidence in farming and reseeding operations.
- a significantly improved basis with regard to trade access issues, claims of disease freedom, and likely disease related quality risks to trade.
- Improved knowledge of the likelihood of paralytic shellfish poisoning issues occurring in abalone
- a sound basis for prioritising future research needs such as further investigation of specific diseases, or extending parts of the survey to meet international standards for official freedom from certain diseases.
Status
This project commenced in July 2002.
The final report is due July 2004.
Related Documents
Project Update
Go to Project Update for further details on the status of this project.
2002/202 - Use of marker assisted genetic breeding to improve abalone and abalone products
Principal Investigator
Dr Nick Robinson
(Genetics Department, Victorian Institute of Animal Science, 475 Mickleham Road, Attwood, VIC 3049)
Project Objectives
This project aims to enhance the rate and efficiency of genetic improvement of commercial stocks of abalone by integrating the use of molecular markers and other advanced genetic selection methods with more traditional selective breeding methods. It will achieve this through the following objectives:
- To formulate an "Abalone Profit Index" (API) in consultation with industry representatives. This index will be utilised to identify the gene markers (and the corresponding traits) that will optimise the genetic gains affecting profitability within the selectively bred abalone stocks (see objective 4). Much of the work to formulate the index will be performed in collaboration with the selective breeding project.
- To develop a computer simulation model of abalone breeding strategies that will identify the most profitable strategies (eg. how many parents to use each generation, which male to mate to which female, which animals to genotype and which markers to include in selection) to exploit the marker and phenotypic information.
- To develop a set of 100-150 abalone microsatellite loci covering the abalone genome for use as genetic markers.
- To use this set of genetic markers to identify linked quantitative trait loci affecting API that can be used to fast track the selection process and ensure maximum genetic gains in the selective breeding project.
Planned Outcomes
Status
This project commenced in July 2003.
The final report is due September 2006.
Related Documents
Project Update
Go to Project Update for further details on the status of this project.
