Aquaculture North America

Teaming up in the pursuit of sterile salmon

November 16, 2018
By Aquaculture North America Staff

AquaBounty has joined forces with Aquaculture R&D company, The Center for Aquaculture Technologies (CAT), to apply CAT’s patented sterility technology in AquaBounty products.

The decision means AquaBounty will be moving from using triploid induction technology to gene editing to ensure fish sterility.

The two companies signed an agreement whereby both will co-fund CAT’s research which is using gene editing to produce a sterile finfish for use in aquaculture. CAT will hold the patents and AquaBounty will receive a non-exclusive, royalty-free, license to those patents and the technology. The development work will be performed at CAT’s facility in San Diego.

“We are delighted to work with AquaBounty to develop this technology and realize its potential in aquaculture,” Dr. John Buchanan, chief executive officer of CAT.

“Although AquaBounty has been very successful in routinely achieving levels approaching 100 per cent sterility using triploid induction technology, we are very pleased to be working with CAT and using their innovative gene editing approach to ensure 100 per cent sterility genetically,” said Ronald Stotish, chief executive officer of AquaBounty. “Sterility of farmed fish has many environmental and production benefits and we believe this project has a broad range of potential applications in the industry.”

CAT operates two laboratories: its research hub in San Diego, Calif., and the world’s only Level 3 certified pathogen containment, private aquaculture research facility located on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Owing to the expertise of its team and the unique versatility of its labs, CAT is enabling the aquaculture industry to achieve efficient production growth without endangering the natural environment.



Print this page

Advertisement

Story continue below