Faced with millions of dying juvenile oysters in 2009, a new coalition of French oyster hatcheries is aiming to pinpoint genetically stronger Pacific creuse oysters (Crassostrea gigas) in 2010.
In recent years, waves of juvenile oysters along France's coast have succumb to disease, threatening sales for the country's, and Europe's largest, oyster industry.
According to the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, Ifremer, this year the phenomenon is linked to several factors, notably a virus called OsHV-1 and the bacteria V. splendidus.
In response, four French oyster hatcheries formed a coalition called Sélection Française Conchylicole (SFC) to help the country's oyster industry find a solution to the disease problems.
"The aim of this union is to improve the survival of the baby oyster by choosing reproducers that have the best genetical aptitude to survive with each new generation," said the SFC.
The collaboration has invested in a hatchery that can produce up to 400 oyster "families" per generation every two years, hailing from the reproduction of 120 parents from each sex.
With three years required to produce an oyster of commercial size, and disease decimating stocks this year, the French oyster industry expects production to drop in 2010 and 2011.
According to the SFC, the aim of its research is to bring to market its "super oysters" by 2015.
"This selection program is clearly costly, but the partner hatcheries involved in the project have good reason to think that it will be crowned by success in the near future," said the SFC.
December 28, 2009
