Industry Projects

ABC’s applied mandate of developing useful strains and varieties of shellfish naturally includes cooperative projects with various industry partners. For example, development of disease resistant strains of oysters – particularly of the American oyster, Crassostrea virginica – leads to its commercial release to interested hatcheries. In addition to developing new strains for testing, we maintain brood stocks for distribution. ABC has been involved in the commercial release of two disease resistant strains, the CROSBreed (XB) strain and the VIMS DEBY strain. {link to XB and DEBY sections of "Native" page}

ABC also shares research projects with other industry related projects ranging from clam breeding to oyster polyploidy. Some examples follow.

Hard clam aquaculture is now the most economically important cultured product in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Despite the successes in hard clam aquaculture, in Virginia and also generally on the US East Coast, very little effort has been focused on genetic selection of brood stock clams. ABC has taken on the task of establishing an industry wide selection and broodstock maintenance program.

The overall mission of CBP will be to enhance the development of Virginia’s hard clam industry by applying needed breeding practices. In reality, the information that exists on the genetics of hard clams is insufficient to allow an a prioi breeding plan from day 1. Rather than launch into selective breeding practices immediately, CBP calls for first taking an inventory of all "strains" available to aquaculturists today and testing them across microenvironments within the State of Virginia.

Phase I – We have compiled available data and information on hard clam strains from a list of industry sources. Although the list of actual and putative strains itself is close to exhaustive, information on the strains themselves is incomplete because records on broodstocks are typically not kept. The brood stock information is now compiled into a "Clam Strain Registry." Copies are available by contacting our Breeding and Demonstration Associate Tom Gallivan at ABC.

Phase II – In the second phase of CBP we are evaluating the candidate strains of brood stock that were identified in a Virginia hard clam industry summit in 1998. Seed from all candidate strains were spawned in our Wachapreague hatchery and reared to plantable size. We planted each of the stocks, in replicate, at the farms of industry cooperators. The objective of Phase II is to evaluate 6-8 strains across the spectrum of environments of Virginia farms and to identify those that are most promising, to be used as founder stock for subsequent long term breeding.

Phase III – The ultimate objective of CBP is Phase III, where continuous improvements in brood stock will be made through ABC efforts and continued industry cooperation. Its too early to say exactly what breeding design will be most appropriate. Some of that information will come from the results of Phase II and some from any new developments that arise in the intervening time from now until Phase III starts, projected to be 2001. The goal is to create clam strains that perform well under the range of growing conditions in Virginian waters, or alternatively, to have a range of brood stocks available for the industry to choose from.

The Western Regional Aquaculture Center supports a multi-institutional research, directed by Dr. Dennis Hedgecock of the University of California’s Bodega Bay Marine Lab on "Brood stock development in the Pacific oyster." One aspect of this research under the auspices of ABC is development of polyploid varieties using inbred lines. Specifically we are investigating the development of tetraploid lines that can be used for breeding triploids on a commercial scale in the Pacific Northwest. Our tetraploid research is carried out with industry partner Taylor Resources (a subsidiary of Taylor United, Inc.) at their hatchery in Quilcene, Washington where ABC research associate Emily Merwin is stationed.

Production of "All-triploid" Pacific oysters using tetraploids

ABC has provided technical assistance for another project funded by the USDA Small Business Innovative Research program concerning the commercial use of tetraploid brood stock for triploid oyster production. Tetraploids were invented at Rutgers University by Drs. Ximing Guo and Stan Allen and their general utility has been documented in the scientific literature. But commercial development of tetraploids has proceeded slowly, principally through the project described here. Specifically, we were interested in learning if tetraploids could be produced routinely by the patented method of Guo and Allen, whether to tetraploids so produced would consistently produce triploid progeny when mated with diploids, whether it was possible to propagate more tetraploid brood stock by crossing tetraploids with tetraploids, and finally, the field performance of triploid seed produced from tetraploid parents compared to triploids otherwise induced from chemical means (the former state-of-the-art for triploid production). This research has been lead by Ph.D. candidate Benoit Eudeline from the Univesité de Caen in France at the site of another industry cooperator, Whiskey Creek Oyster Hatchery in Tillamook, Oregon.