2020-2025 Strategic Plan for the Australian Oyster Industry
Understanding Ostreid herpesvirus type 1 risk: alternative hosts and in situ hybridisation
Survey of Enterprise-level Biosecurity across the Australian Aquaculture Industry
Improving data on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander marine resource use to inform decision-making
Future Oysters CRC-P Communication and Adoption
Future oysters CRC-P: Species diversification to provide alternatives for commercial production
Future oysters CRC-P: Polymicrobial involvement in OsHV outbreaks (and other diseases)
Future oysters CRC-P: New Technologies to Improve Sydney Rock Oyster Breeding and Production
The hatchery sector for SRO is still developing and any assistance with its underlying operating challenges or potential increases to its seed market significantly improve the prospects for its continued development.
Tetraploid SRO: Triploid SRO can grow up to 30% faster than normal SRO and commonly have a significantly longer marketability window. Accordingly, many framers have eagerly awaited the supply of more triploid seed. In order for this to occur new techniques that overcome the shortcomings of direct induction are required - techniques that don't involve the direct application of harmful chemicals to what will eventually be a foodstuff.
Gamete preservation: Currently techniques for strip spawning SRO gametes typically results in the destruction of valuable broodstock and the collection of many more gametes than are required immediately. The capacity to simply and cheaply store gametes for relatively short periods of time offers a number of advantages. Once the hatchery operator is satisfied with the performance of gametes (usually apparent within hours to days) gametes could be shared with other hatcheries. This is particularly valuable where brood stock are scarce because of time of year or they are from a limited population in a breeding program. If problems occur, stored gametes could be used to commence a second batch without the need to continue to hold and feed broodstock, or to recreate a particular cross (or new crosses) within a breeding program.
Maturation: SRO broodstock can take up to 10 weeks to bring into condition within a hatchery and can consume up to 80% of the algae required for a hatchery production run - this is both time consuming and expensive. Technology that accelerates reproductive condition and then stimulates spawning on demand could significantly reduce these costs.
Final report
Future Oysters CRC-P: Accelerated Sydney Rock Oyster (SRO) Breeding Research
Progress in the Sydney rock oyster breeding program is constrained by a number of factors, in particular the number of families that are produced and how they are selected and tested. This program will accelerate SRO breeding progress in three key areas; by producing more families, earlier in each production year and using new methods for family selection.
Final report
The next step was greater understanding of the genetic parameters for QX and WM disease and how these related to other traits under selection, growth and meat condition. Genetic progress could be achieved by increasing the numbers of families available for selection, improved understanding of the genetic architecture of traits and reducing the length of breeding cycles for disease resistance. NSW DPI, SOCo, genetic specialists at CSIRO and oyster researchers at Macquarie University developed a multidisciplinary research program to deliver genetic progress for the SOCo breeding program.