Stealing away from the crime scene...

The popular TV show Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) is fiction, but the forensic science it shows is for real. RPC is using the same DNA technology to find the genetic "fingerprints" of fish, a process called "genotyping". Genotyping provides information New Brunswick's $200 million aquaculture industry needs to improve its breeding programs, and to understand how to sustain healthy, genetically diverse stocks.

Until just a few years ago, conventional breeding methods were used to choose the best fish to be bred to produce strong and healthy offspring. The fish to be bred, called "broodstock," were tracked by physical branding or tagging and their success was measured throughout their lifetime. This process goes a long way toward developing healthy fish for farmers, but more can be done.

Just like any other animal, fish need to be bred carefully to avoid unhealthy inbreeding. The emergence of genotyping has brought farmers a tool for assessment of the genetic diversity of their stock. Now, if inbreeding is detected, farmers can improve the genetic diversity of their fish stocks by setting up mating between two broodstock fish with different DNA genotypes. By maintaining and enhancing genetic diversity of broodstock, fish are healthier and grow bigger and stronger.

Genotyping is also important to what is called "traceability"- the ability to trace the origin of a fish from the supermarket back to the processing line and further back to the fish farm.

And genotyping is a handy weapon to have in dealing with trade restrictions encountered when Canadian fish farmers export live fish. The salmon species native to several salmon rivers in the State of Maine have been declared endangered, and therefore must be protected from breeding with "undesireables" such as escapees from aquaculture cages. A law was passed that all salmon placed in aquaculture cages in US waters must now be shown to be of North American origin, just in case they escape and engage the locals. RPC's genotyping service allows Canada's exported fish to be screened against a large database of genotyping information from fish in Europe and North America to verify its continent of origin.

Threatening a US declared endangered species (or getting around a trade restriction?) - now that is a crime RPC can solve with DNA technology. An idea for a CSI episode perhaps...?

 

 

 

 

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