Applications of biotechnology in fish

Abstract EN

The use of modern biotechnology to enhance production of aquatic species holds great potential not only to meet demand but also to improve aquaculture.

Genetic modification and biotechnology also hold tremendous potential to improve the quality and quantity of fish reared in aquaculture.

There is a growing demand for aquaculture ; biotechnology can help to meet this demand.

As with all biotech-enhanced foods, aquaculture will be strictly regulated before approved for market.

Biotech aquaculture also offers environmental benefits.

When appropriately integrated with other technologies for the production of food, agricultural products and services, biotechnology can be of significant assistance in meeting the needs of an expanding and increasingly urbanized population in the next millennium.

Successful development and application of biotechnology are possible only when a broad research and knowledge base in the biology, variation, breeding, agronomy, physiology, pathology, biochemistry and genetics of the manipulated organism exist.

Benefits offered by the new technologies cannot be fulfilled without a continued commitment to basic research.

Biotechnological programs must be fully integrated into a research background and cannot be taken out of context if they are to succeed.

Egyptian fisheries and aquaculture is an important sector of food production, providing nutritional security to the food basket, contributing to the agricultural exports and engaging about fourteen million people in different activities.

Fish and fish products have presently emerged as the largest group in agricultural exports of Egypt.

The potential area of biotechnology in aquaculture include the use of synthetic hormones in induced breeding, transgenic fish, gene banking, uniparental and polyploidy population and health management.

The science of biotechnology has endowed us with new tools and tremendous power to create novel genes and genotypes of plants, animals and fish.

The application of biotechnology in the fisheries sector is a relatively recent practice.

Nevertheless, it is a promising area to enhance fish production.

The increased application of biotechnological tools can certainly revolutionise our fish farming besides its role in biodiversity conservation.

This paper briefly reports the current progress and thrust areas in the transgenesis, chromosome engineering, use of synthetic hormones in fish breeding, biotechnology in health management and gene banking.