Genetic improvement of the herbivorous blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala)

S.F. Li and W.Q. Cai

Naga, 2003, vol. 26, issue 1, 20-23

Abstract: Selection experiments with the herbivorous blunt snout bream or Wuchang bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) were started in 1985. Mass selection for size and length/depth ratio resulted in a significant increase in growth and better shape, while inbreeding led to a significant decrease in growth. The total selection ratio from fry to mature brooders was about 0.03 per cent per generation. In the grow out stage, the average daily body weight gains of two lines of fifth generation (F5) fish were 29 per cent and 20 per cent respectively more than the control group, with an average of 5.8 per cent and 4 per cent improvements per generation, respectively. The body was 4 per cent deeper in ratio of standard length/body depth. The effects of inbreeding were examined by crossing full-sibs, the offspring of which were kept without selection. The third generation inbred fish showed 17 per cent lower growth as compared to the control group, with an average of 7.5 per cent per generation. The results demonstrate that selection is a powerful tool to improve the economic traits of the blunt snout bream, but inbreeding can rapidly lead to a reduction in performance. In 2000, the 6th generation of selected bream was certified by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture as a good breed for aquaculture.

Keywords: Selective breeding; Fish culture; Growth; Body size; China; People's Rep.; Megalobrama amblycephala (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12348/2195 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wfi:wfnaga:36031

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Naga from The WorldFish Center Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by William Ko ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).