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

The autumn 2004 Aqua Gen’s four breeding populations were merged into one. This shift in breeding regime was made possible by means of using the new unique technology for milt cryopreservation. After testing for disease resistance and growth rate during the freshwater period the fish was transferred to sea cages during the autumn 2005. After one year in sea water it’s now time to collect data for different traits, such as weight, length and deformities.

For the first time in Aqua Gen sex identification is recorded long time before sexual maturation. This is done by means of ultrasound imaging. Sex identification facilitates a more accurate and effective selection of which fish is going to reproduce the next generation of the breeding nucleus. Together with newly developed data software this enables our geneticist to perform individual selection, which is more precise than traditional family breeding. Additionally, sex identification enables the geneticist to correct for the effect of sex on the important trait growth rate. Of almost 40,000 fish tested representatives from all salmon families are sorted out to be included in a slaughter test after the turn of the year.