The autumn of 2009 Aqua Gen launched salmon eggs from brood fish which were chosen based on use of a genetic marker for IPN resistance. Nearly 50 million of this egg type, called QTL eggs, were delivered to Norwegian and Scottish customers in the course of the egg season 2009/2010. The results of laboratory tests and reports from hatcheries show that the salmon fry have so far been very well protected against IPN.

Aqua Gen Chile named Patrick Dempster (49) as Managing Director. Dempster will take over from Svein Sørvik, effective from 1 June 2010. Sørvik will enter a new position within marketing and business development at the Aqua Gen headquarter in Trondheim, Norway.

Aqua Gen has received funding for a research project, the goal of which is to find a genetic marker for resistance to salmon lice. The project will last three years and will take place in the period 2010-2012.

Eivind Isdal (43) is newly employed as Marketing Manager, Region South. He assumed his new position November 16, 2009.

The first brood fish in the Aqua Gen system were stripped on 9th September. This is the earliest date ever in the history of Aqua Gen that stripping has commenced. The first deliveries of early eggs will therefore be brought forward to weeks 43-44.

Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) has been diagnosed on a broodfish population belonging to Marine Harvest Norway, location Høgholmen in Bjugn. The site is one of the external multipliers in the Aqua Gen system.

As the world’s first selective breeding company in the area of aquaculture, there will be used a gene marker to choose brood fish that produce offspring with predictably high resistance to the viral disease IPN. By combining traditional selective breeding and genetic testing the offspring will acquire improved traits for both growth and IPN resistance at the same time, when compared to previous egg generations.

EU has approved ISA-free segments and zones in Norway based on historical absence of disease and approved biosecurity measure programs. Aqua Gen's populations in both fresh- and salt water at Hemne and Tingvoll have received the status of ISA-free.

Aqua Gen recently presented the findings of a project which described the finding and use of a DNA marker that decides IPN resistance in Salmon. This research is characterized as a new discovery which the seafood industry needs.

Restrictions which were imposed in connection with the presence of the BKD bacterium in brood fish at Aqua Gen Hemne in the autumn of 2008 have been lifted. All the brood fish at the site have been disposed of and the facility has been disinfected and fallowed according to regulations.

This year’s eyed eggs of rainbow trout from Aqua Gen are the first generation in which the parents have been selected based on high resistance to IPN. In the last few years IPN in rainbow trout fry has been a problem, but selective breeding as a means of reducing the incidence of the disease is quite new in commercial breeding programs.

The bacterium causing BKD, Renibacterium salmoninarum has been detected in brood fish at Aqua Gen Hemne. The diagnosis is based on autopsy, positive PCR and other immunological methods, but so far it has not been possible to grow it. Neither irregular behaviour, nor mortalities have been observed in this brood fish group.

Thomas Moen (37) is employed as a Research Scientist in Aqua Gen from August 1. 2008.

Certification covers the entire production process involved in brood fish and egg production. In addition Aqua Gen is certified according to Quality Standard ISO 9001:2000.

The goal of these new web pages is to give good information about the company, the products and knowledge about our professional disciplines. We also would like to have a design which is more user-friendly and more descriptive of Aqua Gen’s operations than the old web pages.

Norwegian researchers have identified the gene that controls a great deal of the fish’s susceptibility to infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN), a viral disease which has cost Norwegian aquaculture great losses. This represents a breakthrough in molecular genetic research and will give a meaningful increase in profits for the aquaculture industry, as a result of fewer losses and better fish welfare. Aqua Gen has already implemented the research results in their practical selective breeding, and has plans to expand the research to include other important viral diseases, such as pancreas disease (PD).

Kjersti T. Fjalestad (47) is employed as a Research Geneticist in Aqua Gen from February 1. 2008.

Anders Marthinussen (35) is from February 1. 2008 appointed as Production Manager in Aqua Gen AS.

EW GROUP GmbH, the holding company of the world’s leading poultry genetic companies, has concluded an agreement to take majority ownership of the shares in Aqua Gen AS, the Norwegian-based salmon breeding company. The sellers are Verdane Private Equity AS, the Norwegian Seafood Federation (FHL), Biomar AS and Eidsfjord Sjøfarm AS.

The first eggs from Aqua Gen will be delivered Tuesday, November 6, thereby marking the start of a new generation of salmon in Norwegian hatcheries. The eggs form the basis for the autumn smolt of 2008 and the spring smolt of 2009, which forms the foundation for the harvesting of biomass chiefly in 2010.

The Nor-Fishing Foundation awarded Aqua Gen the Innovation Prize 2007 of NOK 100 000 at Aqua Nor. Aqua Gen won the prize for devoloping a machine for the high quality grading of fertilized Salmonid and Trout eggs.

Aqua Gen has created a new position as a Quality controller / Fish health manager, and has appointed Nina Santi (35) from August 1. 2007.

Aqua Gen’s new breeding population of Atlantic salmon has been in sea cages for one year and testing has started.

A malfunction in the production of salmon eggs has occurred in the Aqua Gen plant at Hemne. The unit represents one of five production lines of eggs in the Aqua Gen system. The production in the other plants goes according to schedule.

The licence, which is granted by the Directorate of Fisheries, gives permission to run experiments and research associated with brood fish, breeding and genetics. The farming biomass is up to 500 tonnes (maximal permitted biomass at any time in the sea) for a period of five years with extension possibilities.

During the past year, in three of Aqua Gen’s facilities, tumours have been detected in the gastrointestinal tract of a limited number of Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout brood fish.

On the 23rd June 2006, PhD student Sissel Kjøglum, who works for Aqua Gen, presented her doctoral thesis for a PhD-degree at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science. Her dissertation was on ”Associations between major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and disease resistance in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.)". This research project makes it possible for Aqua Gen to increase its efforts to breed healthy and robust fish.

In order to secure good and stable egg quality Aqua Gen Norway’s egg production has been certified according to ISO 9001:2000. The certificate was issued by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), that also conducts external audits to ensure that the quality system is functioning properly.

These days marks the termination of an industrial controlled research project that has been a collaboration between the Institute of Marine Research and Aqua Gen. The project has had the following title: Atlantic salmon genes influencing resistance to salmon lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis). The main conclusion is that it is more difficult to breed for resistance to salmon lice than for resistance to bacterial and viral infections.

At the same time as salmon fishing starts in Norwegian rivers, the selected broodfish is taken from the sea-pens and placed in fresh water tanks. This is part of the natural reproduction cycle of Atlantic salmon. To secure best possible egg quality that can be delivered on the time requested by our customers, the right combination of photoperiod and temperature must be applied. But the most important took place four years ago when the parents of this year’s broodfish were selected.

Aqua Gen has implemented new cutting edge technology for cryopreservation of milt, representing a milestone in Aqua Gen’s selective breeding scheme. Through the subsidiary Cryogenetics the technology is also offered to others, in Norway and abroad. Last spawning season milt was frozen for a Scottish aquaculture company and milt from wild salmon for VESO/The Directorate for Nature Management (DN).

By dispatching more than 10 million eggs as early as week 47, Aqua Gen has demonstrated an all time early start of the egg season. By giving the brood fish different photoperiod- and temperature regimes, Aqua Gen has achieved a high degree of flexibility in production of salmon eggs. This makes it possible to deliver eggs early to customers who want to produce 0+ smolts early in the autumn without accelerating growth rate by means of high water temperature, which is harmful for the fish. Aqua Gen will also expand the season in the other end by producing eggs for late hatch. Increasing the window for delivery of eyed eggs, increases the flexibility and cost efficiency in smolt production and the grow-out phase.

A biobank can be defined as storage of biological material for a specified time and whose origin can be traced to the individual fish from which it originates. By linking information about relatives, about the phenotype and further accessible biological data we have the necessary information to find interesting biological links. BioBank AS, has now been established as a subsidiary of Aqua Gen AS, Geno and Norsvin, each owning 1/3 of the shares.

Odd Magne Rødseth (43) is appointed to the position as General Manager in Aqua Gen AS. Today Rødseth is Research Director at Intervet Norbio AS. He takes over his new position February 1, 2004.

There are increasing demands for detailed information on the nature and origin of food products. Traceability is becoming a legal and commercial necessity. This also applies to fish and fish products. From this year’s production of salmon eggs at Aqua Gen Hemne a new electronically based traceability system will be adopted.

Control with sea lice infestation is an important and highly prioritized activity in salmonid aquaculture. To succeed, different strategies are employed, such as bath treatments, feed medication and using cleaner fish (wrasse) as a biological treatment. A new approach in combating the parasite is to increase the innate resistance of the fish to lice infestation.

Aqua Gen has bought egg incubators from Chile. In Norway it is common to use large containers for egg incubation, from 30 Liter to 200-300 Liter. In Chile salmonid eggs are usually incubated in smaller units.

Infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) is one of the most serious infectious diseases in salmonid aquaculture. Since 1997 Aqua Gen has conducted trials for selective breeding to improve the innate resistance against IPN. Recent data from our geneticists confirm that the selection methods developed at Aqua Gen are efficient.

Aqua Gen’s goal of providing its customers with quality products has been strengthened by the introduction of new measurement methodology for fat content and colour intensity.

Aqua Gen has frozen milt (=semen) since the early 1980s. Cryopreserving milt in aquaculture has so far not been common due to imperfections of available methods. During the last couple of years Aqua Gen in collaboration with the cattle breeding company, GENO, has developed epoch-making new cryopreservation techniques, giving new possibilities for using frozen milt in selective breeding.

A new breeding scheme for Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout based on new technology will simplify and speed up the selection process!