Location: National Cold Water Marine Aquaculture Center
2022 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Improved North American Atlantic salmon smolt. Commercial salmon farms are expected to increase 5-fold over the next 3 years and will require a fast-growing fish to compete in a global market. A higher weight at smolt usually results in a faster time to market and a higher chance of survival. When the National Coldwater Marine Aquaculture Center selective breeding program in Franklin, Maine, began in 2007, the average weight at smolt was 65 grams per fish. After four generations of selecting for growth, the average weight at smolt more than doubled at 167 grams per fish. This improved germplasm has been transferred to industry stakeholders and will have an immediate economic impact on reducing the time to market and profitability.
2. New method to detect off-flavor in water and fish tissue. An increase in land-based aquaculture systems in the U.S. to produce Atlantic salmon is expected and will require methods to monitor off-flavor to ensure fish are acceptable to consumers. Previous methods could only process 10 samples a day and cost $120 per sample. University of Maine researchers in collaboration with ARS scientists at Franklin, Maine, developed a new method of detecting geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol, the two compounds that cause off-flavor in water and fish tissues. The new method utilizes a high capacity sorptive extraction with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry detection. The new method can process at least 40 samples per day at a cost of $40 per sample. Industry and stakeholders such as the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, the Freshwater Institute, Aquacon, and Superior Fresh are currently sending their water and fish tissue samples to University of Maine. This new technology is reducing the cost to measure off-flavor by two thirds and will save the industry thousands of dollars each year.
Review Publications
Witkop, E.M., Proestou, D.A., Gomez-Chiarri, M. 2022. The expanded Inhibitor of Apoptosis gene family in oysters possesses novel domain architectures and may play diverse roles in apoptosis following immune challenge. BMC Genomics. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-021-08233-6.
Witkop, E., Wikfors, G.H., Proestou, D.A., Markey Lundgren, K.R., Sullivan, M.E., Gomez-Chiarri 2022. Perkinsus marinus suppresses in vitro eastern oyster apoptosis via IAP-dependent and caspase-independent pathways involving TNFR, NF-kB, and oxidative pathway crosstalk. Developmental and Comparative Immunology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dci.2022.104339.
Bledsoe, J.W., Pietrak, M.R., Burr, G.S., Peterson, B.C., Small, B.C. 2022. Symmetry of tissue-specific immune expression and microbiota profiles across mucosal tissues of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) highlight host-microbe coadaptations that are marginally perturbed by functional feeds. Animal Microbiome. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42523-022-00173-0.
Zhao, J., Vendramin, N., Cuenca, A., Polinski, M.P., Hawley, L., Garver, K. 2021. Pan-Piscine Orthoreovirus (PRV) detection using reverse transcription quantitative PCR. Pathogens. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10121548.
Burr, G.S., Peterson, B.C., Gaylord, T.G. 2022. Effects of Histidine on growth performance of North American Atlantic Salmon. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society. 10.1111/jwas.12873.