SBIR-STTR Award

While certain forage fisheries remain sustainable and well-maintained, they clearly are not scalable – to expand domestic marine aquaculture and increase the nation’s seafood security, aquafeed formulations must be adapted to make greater use of sustainable agriculture proteins and oils produced in America’s heartland. Kampachi Farms and University of Nebraska have been working jointly to replace fishmeal in diets for our Kampachi (Seriola rivoliana) with soy protein concentrate (SPC). This research has been successful, with fish performing acceptably on diets containing 40% SPC and

Reliance on fishmeal and fish oil is a significant constraint to aquaculture expansion in America, and globally. As U.S. marine fish farming expands, genetic improvements could increase economic performance and decrease ecological footprint. This is critically important to sustainability, scalability and profitability of the industry, and is key to attracting capital investment. Commercial opportunities and sustainability concerns are probably greatest for high-value marine finfish, such as kampachi (Seriola rivoliana). Phase I research identified genetic markers that were highly-significantly associated with enhanced performance of kampachi on soy-based feeds. This work also initiated early development of high-throughput screening panels for this trait, which could improve sustainability and profitability of kampachi production on U.S. agriculture-based feeds. Primary Phase II objectives are to validate and test heritability of these markers through marker-assisted broodstock selection; and, identify markers associated with other Seriola phenotypes critical for health, survival and yield in commercial culture (fillet yield, fat content, spinal deformities, sex, skin fluke resistance). A flexible marker panel (able to add new markers, as needed) will allow rapid genotyping of potential broodstock for “tofu-tolerance” markers and potentially markers associated with these other commercially critical traits.