Abstract
BackgroundThe study evaluated genetic progress of a breeding program for common carp undergoing four generations of selection for increased harvest body weight from 2004 to 2014. The pedigree included 17,351 individual fish which were offspring of 342 sires and 352 dams. Genetic parameters for body weight at about two years of age and survival rate during grow-out period were also estimated using the residual maximum likelihood method applied to a two-trait linear mixed model. Direct response in body weight and correlated changes in survival were measured as the differences in: i) estimated breeding values (EBVs) between the two lines; and ii) EBVs of the selection line between successive generations.ResultsDirect gain in body weight ranged from 0.20 to 0.90 genetic standard deviation units and averaged 7 % of the base population per generation (two years per generation). Correlated changes in survival were negligible, indicating that the selection program for high growth did not have any adverse effect on this trait in the present population. The heritability for body weight was moderate (0.17, s.e. 0.05), whereas the estimate for survival was low (0.05–0.17) but significantly different from zero across linear mixed and threshold generalised statistical models. Our results predict that body weight or/and other growth related traits will continue to respond to selection and that there is potential to improve survival through direct genetic means. Correlated improvement in survival to selection for increased body weight was hardly achieved, as the genetic correlation between the two traits was not different from zero.ConclusionsIt is concluded that selection for increased harvest body weight resulted in significant improvement in growth performance of the present population of common carp Cyprinus carpio.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-015-0256-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The study evaluated genetic progress of a breeding program for common carp undergoing four generations of selection for increased harvest body weight from 2004 to 2014
Experimental location The breeding program for common carp was conducted at the Freshwater Fisheries Research Centre (FFRC) of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (CAFS), following The Guide for the Care and Use of Experimental Animals of China
Characteristics of the population and data Over four generations of selection from 2004 to 2014, a total of 17,351 offspring produced from 342 sires and 352 dams were performance tested in earthen pond over/during an average grow-out period of 383 days
Summary
The study evaluated genetic progress of a breeding program for common carp undergoing four generations of selection for increased harvest body weight from 2004 to 2014. Common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) is one of the most economically important freshwater species for aquaculture in the world including China [1]. China has a long history of culturing common carp and the species has played a significant socio-economic role in the society [3]. Breeding this species in captivity only began in 1970’s when some varieties were developed for aquaculture, mainly by crossbreeding technique [4].
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