Seafood CRC: Scope and economic analysis of options for a nationally unified breeding program that provides significant economic benefit to the Australian abalone aquaculture industry

Funded Activity Summary

Due to the divided opinions of members, the AAGA committee believes the best way forward is to commission the CRC to scope and model both the Tasmanian/GSW program(s), and determine the optimal strategy for a centralised mainland program, not to compare them against each other, but rather to provide an economic model of each, recognising infrastructure, running costs, capacity to produce families, etc, that will deliver a breeding strategy for each initiative to allow them to maximise their genetic gains and economic benefits (benefit to cost ratio). By doing this we will determine how to best meet AAGA’s objectives for the supply of selectively bred stock to the industry. These objectives are:
• Capacity to achieve maximum rate of genetic gain for the traits selected
• Minimum time until the supply of improved stock can meet the demand by the industry
• Capacity to service all industry members (including land-based farms without hatcheries and at-sea farms)
• Commercial, financial and practical feasibility in the short (5years) and long term (10-20 years), with significant economic benefit to the industry
• Capacity to implement biosecurity measures that will meet state agencies’ legislative requirements for translocation and result in sustainability of the program (ie. not affected by disease issues)
• Capacity for all abalone breeding initiatives to work collaboratively and value-add to each other

Objectives:
1. To model the Tasmanian/GSW program(s) and alternative mainland strategies, and determine the optimal strategy for a unified, centrally coordinated program. The aim would not be to compare breeding programs against each other, but rather to provide an economic model of each, recognising infrastructure, running costs, capacity to produce families, commercial viability, co-investment with partners across sectors, etc, that will deliver a breeding strategy (breeding design and objectives) for each initiative to allow them to maximise their genetic gains and economic benefits (benefit to cost ratio).
2. To identify the areas of collaboration for adding value to each program and the standardisation of procedures needed to ensure collaboration is achievable.
3. To identify key researchable constraints to the implementation of the breeding programs, prioritise the research objectives and identify funding options.
4. The cooperative breeding program that develops should aim to achieve the objectives of AAGA, as listed in the Needs section.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-03-2008

End Date: 31-08-2008

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $36,363.24

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Animal Technologies | Aquaculture | Biosecurity | Economic | Health And Safety | Husbandry | Reproduction

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