Seafood CRC: genetic selection for Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD) resilience in the Tasmanian Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) breeding program
SCRC: SCRC RTG 3.2: Short term lab placement in Aberdeen, UK (Benita Vincent)
Final report
To conduct a short term lab placement at the Marine Laboratories in Aberdeen to gain skills in new techniques including producing and maintaining primary cell cultures from gill explants and tissues.
This research travel grant allowed the author to conduct a short term lab placement at the Marine Laboratories in Aberdeen in order to gain skills in new techniques including producing and maintaining primary cell cultures from gill explants and tissues.
Following the short term lab placement in Aberdeen, the author developed techniques to isolate and culture gill cells from Atlantic Salmon. To date, cultures have been maintained for up to 15 days. Ongoing work will involve further development of these techniques to enable isolation of high cell densities of gill cells. In addition adapting cell culture conditions to allow changes in salinity will facilitate the development of assays involving the agent of amoebic gill disease (AGD) in Atlantic Salmon, the marine amoeba, Neoparamoeba perurans. This will in the longer term enable attachment assays to be developed, potentially leading to identifying attachment receptors that may be important in disease development.
IPA APFA: detection of pesticide impacts on larval prawns in hatcheries and presence in estuarine intake water
SCRC: SCRC RTG: Study Tour to Norway (Richard Taylor)
Final report
The primary reason for this travel was to attend the Fish Breeders' Round Table in Stavanger, Norway. This is an international forum, where knowledge and experience is exchanged between fish breeding researchers and those involved in applied genetic improvement work on a commercial basis.
The forum included over 30 presentations on genomics, genetic models and commercial application of fish breeding. Following the meeting the author visited research institutions and Atlantic Salmon breeding installations.
SCRC: Optimising External Colour in Farmed Crustaceans, using Penaeus monodon as a model species.
Consistency of colour as well as overall colour intensity are essential elements to seafood product acceptability, marketability and dollar value. This is particularly true for the deep red colour of cooked crustaceans. Farmed crustacean species commonly have suboptimal colour consistency and/or colour intensity. There is an industry driven need to therefore optimise colour consistency and intensity of farmed crustacean product.
Farmed crustacean colour is enhanced by a critical but costly feed additive, the carotenoid astaxanthin. The increased outlay in production is offset by gains in market value of between $2 to 5 / kg, in the case of prawns. To achieve consistent premium colour grade scores, our most recent research in penaeid prawns and hard-shelled lobsters showed that the cooked colour of the animal is not related solely to the total carotenoid content of the animal, but it is essential for the carotenoid to be bound with high levels of a colour protein called crustacyanin (CRCN).
To expand our scientific knowledge in this area, future research needs to extend beyond carotenoid inclusion levels in diets, and begin to explore natural variation in abundance of this novel colour protein complex or simple methods that can increase the protein abundance and enhance colour. This baseline information will support the development of commercial procedures that maximise crustacean colour consistency and intensity, allowing farmers to maximise product quality, price, marketability and acceptability.
Final report
Consistent, deep red coloured cooked prawns are highly sought after in the Australian market and accordingly fetch premium market prices. Farmed crustacean species commonly have suboptimal colour consistency and/or colour intensity. There is an industry driven need to therefore optimise colour consistency and intensity of farmed crustacean product.
This project sought to define the amount of colour variation that exists in farmed prawns, as well as test a recently established method for manipulating prawn colour.