The Pincoy Project, a joint effort by several leading Chilean farming and aquaculture technology and feed companies to decrease the use of antibiotics in the country’s salmon sector, has achieved a new milestone with the introduction of homozygous eggs with genetic markers for salmonidean rickettsial septicemia (SRS).
Announced in 2016, the Pincoy Project is a joint endeavor that includes AquaGen, Blumar, Centrovet, Cermaq, Pharmaq, Skretting, and more recently, Camanchaca. The project started with a two-year pilot program that culminated at the end of 2018. Now, participants are taking results and expanding the scope of the project and its visibility among the greater aquaculture industry in Chile. The project aims to develop a holistic approach to aquaculture that will allow Chile’s industry at large to rely less on antibiotics.
Now deep into its second phase, the project has the goal of strengthening fish resistance to SRS through genetic selection. The announcement by AquaGen that it has developed homozygous eggs with genetic markers for SRS resistance from both for male and female fish is expected to decrease the presence or severity of SRS outbreaks, according to a press release from Cermaq.
“It is important to highlight that in recent years, SRS has been the main cause of antibiotics use in the Chilean salmon industry,” Aquagen Chile Commercial Manager Cristhian Ortiz said. “Thanks to this innovation and based on the current use of eggs with the highest genetic resistance to the disease, we expect to reduce the presence and impact of SRS outbreaks. This could translate to decreasing the use of antibiotics, which would mean a key advance in the project."
Pincoy has released a video demonstrating the achievement and how it affects the genetic selection process “to show this interesting innovation and contextualize this achievement,” Ortiz said.
“We believe that this type of achievement positions us as an example in the industry,” he said. “In addition to the use of fish with this advanced genetic improvement, the project has incorporated a variety of tools from different areas to achieve the main goal. The project has implemented best farming practices in fresh- and sea-water centers, the use of functional and high-performance diets, we are also making improvements in the quality of smolts, making strategic use of vaccines and implementation of the adequate pharmacological treatments.”
Photo courtesy of Cermaq Chile
