Program 1 (Production Innovation) Prawn Research Projects

 

 

 

 

 

2007/224 - Increasing the profitability of Penaeus monodon farms vis the use of low water exchange, mirobial floc production

2007/716 - Passion for prawns benchmarking performance

2008/756 - Increasing seedstock production pf domesticated Giant Tiger Prawns through improved male fertility

2008/757 - Commercial production of all-female reproductivity sterile triploid Giant Tiger Prawns: Assessing their commercial performance in ponds

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Increasing the Profitability of Penaeus monodon Farms via the Use of Low Water Exchange and Microbial Floc Production

Project Number - 2007/716 (adopted project from the FRDC)

Start Date - 1st October 2007

End Date - 30th June 2008

Principal Investigator - Mr David Smith

Research Provider - CSIRO Marine Atmospheric Research

CRC Research End User - Australian Prawn Farmers Assoc

 

About the Project

The aim of the project is to increase the profitability of P. monodon farms by significantly reducting production costs whilst ensuring environmental sustainability.

Project Objectives

1. evaluate the effectiveness of different carbon sources for microbial floc formation in commercial ponds.

2. Determine the nutritional benefits of microbial flocs to P. monodon reared in ponds and quantify the associated reduction in feed costs.

3. Quantify the effects of low water exchange, microbial floc production systems on the reduction in farm nutrient discharge and overall effects on farm profitability.

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BBQ prawns

Passion for Prawns - Benchmarking Performance

Project Number - 2007/716

Start Date - 1st October 2007

End Date - 30th June 2008

Principal Investigator - Ms Helen Jenkins

Research Provider - Australian Prawn Farmers Association

CRC Research End User - Australian Prawn Farmers Assoc

 

About the Project

The "Passion for Prawns" initiative will deliver investments across a range of activities all linked together with the shared goal of improving market value. By increasing the market value of farmed prawns the industry will significantly grow its value from its exisiting operational base.

Project Objectives

1. Identification of key business performance indicators to enable measured evaluation of returns on investment in the industries development.

2. Measurement of the Australian prawn farmers varying performance against those key business performance indicators.

3. Identification of the key drivers of variation in performance across the farms against those key business performance indicators.

4. Establishment of recommended actions to overcome the variability and improve performance against the business performance indicators identified in objective 3.

5. Extension of the actions to the next generation of industry leaders

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Prawn - Aquaculture

Increasing Seedstock Production of Domesticated Giant Tiger Prawns (Penaeus monodon) Through Increased Male Fertility

Project Number - 2008/756

Start Date - 1st January 2009

End Date - 30th November 2010

Principal Investigator - Dr Greg Coman

Research Provider - CSIRO

CRC Research End User - Australian Prawn Farmers Assoc

 

About the Project

If domesticated P. monodon broodstock can be produced economically at a commercial scale, Australian prawn farmers will be in a position to significantly improve farm yields and profitability through selective breeding.

Developing protocols enabling a pond-rearing phase within P. monodon broodstock production has potential to greatly reduce costs of broodstock production, allowing more
companies to maintain domesticated lines and increasing production of domesticated-selected seedstock throughout the industry. Pond rearing of P. monodon broodstock has repeatedly experienced problems due to poor fertility of the
males.

This project seeks to further our understanding of the development of the male reproductive tract and examine the environmental and dietary factors which are most likely candidates for compromising the fertility of the pond-reared males. The project aims to determine ‘if’ and ‘how’ a pond-rearing phase can be used play a role in producing commercially-viable numbers of P. monodon broodstock.

Seedstock production of broodstock reared in clear water systems has also been constrained by poor egg fertilisation rates. This project also aims to determine the degree to which egg fertilisation is correlated with sperm count and morphology, and to develop a practical measure of male fertility which can be used by industry.

Project Objectives

1. Quantify relationships between male sperm count and morphology and egg fertilisation rates.

2. Determine the effect that the moulting cycle has on male spermatophore development and sperm count.

3. Quantify the consistency/repeatability of spermatophore development, sperm count and morphology for individual males over time.

4. Develop practical and predictive means to evaluate male fertility that can be used by industry.

5. Compare the reproductive tract development of males reared in tanks under ideal broodstock rearing conditions to conditions involving low temperature stress and suboptimal diet.

6. Compare reproductive tract development of males reared in tanks under ideal broodstock-rearing conditions to males reared in outdoor ponds managed for commercial broodstock
production.

7. Determine optimal rearing protocols that can be used for commercial broodstock production based on the data generated in this project.

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Commercial Production of All-Female Reproductivity Sterile Triploid Giant Tiger Prawns (Penaeusmonodon) : Assessing their Commercial Performance in Ponds

Project Number - 2008/757

Start Date - 1st August 2008

End Date - 30th June 2010

Principal Investigator - Dr Mellony Sellars

Research Provider - CSIRO

CRC Research End User - Australian Prawn Farmers Assoc

 

About the Project

The Australian prawn industry needs a mechanism by which to confer genetic protection of seedstock with elite genotypes so that their commercial benefits can be made available to the entire domestic industry through the sale of elite seedstock for on-growing. To-date triploidy is the only available technology that is near commercialisation that provides a high level of genetic protection through reproductive sterility.

Triploidy has the added benefit of resulting in female populations, with females naturally growing larger than males. This attribute should provide further improvements on harvest yield beyond the performance. Triploidy has the added benefit of resulting in female populations, with females naturally growing larger than males. This attribute should provide further improvements on harvest yield beyond the performance provided from the elite genotypes alone.

If this project demonstrates that total harvest yields are
substantially improved through stocking triploids as predicted, triploid induction technologies will be of direct benefit to (and can be utilised by) the entire Australian industry as wild spawned females are also larger than males. This provides direct benefits to the industry independent of accessing the elite genotypes being produced by the four largest Australian prawn producers, providing immediate benefits for any Australian farm or hatchery producing seedstock.

Project Objectives

1. To develop P. monodon triploid heat shock induction systems that allow all eggs spawned from any one female to be exposed to heat shock at the same time.

2. To determine the performance (growth, survival, reproductive sterility and sex ratio) of triploid P. monodon when reared at commercial farms in earthen ponds relative to that of normal diploids.

3. To develop commercially relevant P. monodon triploid induction protocols for the Australian industry that accommodate constraints such as a natural spawning cycle (e.g. not reversed light as with experimental stocks), proximity of heated water to spawning tanks and systems available to add heated water to apply the shock).

4. To transfer commercially relevant triploid induction technologies to one or more commercial hatcheries.

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This page was last updated: 3rd October 2008