Selective breeding programme for organic aquaculture

Deadline: Feb 22, 2024  
CALL EXPIRED

In line with the European Green Deal priorities and in particular with the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the 2030 climate target pact, a selective breeding programme for organic aquaculture will be developed contributing to the impact “develop and improve practices in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture to support and make sustainable use of biodiversity and a wide range of ecosystems services”.

The selected project is expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Contribution to a non-toxic environment, to a high level of biodiversity (including genetic diversity) and to high animal welfare standards meeting the species-specific behavioural needs;
• Significantly boost in the quality of aquaculture products, improving traits of economic and welfare importance;
• Increased feed efficiency that will also result in a reduced environmental impact through the minimization of feed residues in the natural environment;
• Less disease outbreaks through genetic progression, i.e. greater disease resistance, increased feed efficiency, faster growth and improved traits of economic and welfare importance;
• Increased knowledge and acceptance of organic aquaculture and its products in the general public through true stakeholder and consumer involvement.

Regulation (EU) 2018/848 lays down detailed production rules for organic aquaculture and requires the use of organic juveniles for on-growing purposes. Breeding under organic conditions is essential to achieve the objectives of organic aquaculture and respect its principles. Breeding is at the same time essential to allow the farmers to reach good productive results and efficient use of the resources under organic production conditions.

Proposals should plan breeding programs under organic aquaculture for the main European aquaculture finfish species, i.e. seabass, seabream, trout and salmon. They should breed organic juveniles under organic production conditions respecting high animal welfare standards (as set in regulation 2018/848 and Implementing Regulation 2020/464) and should aim to improve species resilience, diseases resistances and feed efficiency satisfying nutritional needs using as much as possible alternative feed materials to increase production sustainability.

Proposals should work on different species and/or different climatic areas tailored to the specificity of the organic aquaculture production and carefully analyse each solution not only in terms of performance but also in terms of the welfare of the farmed animals. They should work on preserving genetic diversity and adaptive potential by developing selective breeding programmes considering interactions between genotypes and rearing systems.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 3-5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.