When the outbreak of abalone viral ganglioneuritus occurred in Victoria in 2006, the abalone farms involved in the selective breeding program had to be destocked, resulting in the loss of their breeding nucleus and more than 7 years’ effort. Had a cryopreservation program been in place to freeze gametes from selected individuals, much of the R&D effort would have been recoverable.

Currently in Australia, a few abalone selective breeding programs have been established or are planning to be established on individual farms. However, the development of these programs has been compromised due to difficulties in producing the desired abalone crosses, both in the selective breeding programs and in commercial production. Globally, consistent, predictable and synchronised spawning has not been achieved for farmed abalone.

Abalone are also characterised by their high fecundity, therefore gametes from limited broodstock are enough for commercial production. However, maintenance of genetic diversity is a critical issue for this industry because genetic diversity within a population increases its ability to sustain the population in case of disease outbreaks and environmental changes and in cultured stocks enables control of inbreeding and maximisation of genetic gains.

Gamete cryopreservation is an ideal tool to address the above mentioned issues. In addition, it is also a secure method for the ex situ preservation of genetic diversity and genetically improved materials, thus providing opportunities to reconstruct the original genetic make-up, re-establish the improved nucleus population, and establish genetic linkage among different generations and/or runs. Moreover, transporting cryopreserved gametes is relatively simple, has less chance for disease translocations as gametes are less likely to carry pathogens than whole animals, and enhances the efficiency of disseminating genetic gains to industry (Chao & Liao 2001, Tiersch 2008).