Selective breeding of the Tahitian domesticated population of Pacific blue shrimp (Litopenaeus stylirostris): perspectives for the New Caledonian shrimp industry

摘要

Research in shrimp farming was initiated at the Centre Oceanologique du Pacifique (Figure 1) of the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER) in Tahiti 25 years ago (Aquacop 1983). One of the objectives was to develop tropicalaquaculture for the overseas territories. In French Polynesia, shrimp production never exceeded 100 tons per year because of the lack of land, but the shrimp industry is now developing quickly in New Caledonia, where 450 ha of ponds are cultivated. The production, which approximated 2,000 tons in 1999 (Figure 2), was valued at US15 million dollar and was exported mainly to top-quality markets in Europe, Japan and Australia. This production represented the second highest agricultural income of New Caledonia, after the beef sector in 2001. The development of new farms is scheduled to reach a production of 5,000 tons annually before 2010. From a genetics point of view, the main characteristic of New Caledonian and Polynesian shrimp production is the factthat they are based on broodstocks of the Pacific blue shrimp, Penaeus stylirostris. The species was introduced into New Caledonia by way of Tahiti from Latin America several times from 1970 to 1980 as a candidate species for aquaculture (Aquacop 1979).Transfer of animals occurred between Polynesia and New Caledonia in both directions until 1990. During that period, a research program was initiated to control reproduction (Aquacop 1983). As in other agricultural sectors (Moss 2000) and as in other countries (Currie 1998, Ibarra 1999, Hetzel et al. 2000), selective breeding programs now have a role to play in this emerging industry. A research program in genetics was initiated in 1992 as one of the ways to enable shrimp farmers to develop more sustainable production.