59. Genetic Analysis of Feed Efficiency in Atlantic Salmon

Families (35) of Atlantic salmon were duplicated in 70 tanks and entered into a feed efficiency trial. Cumulative Feed intake (FI), weight gain (WTGAIN), feed efficiency (FE) and final energy content of the fish (ENERGY), which depends on its lipid content, were recorded at tank level and analysed at the family level using ~55000 SNP markers. To the best of our knowledge, genomic analysis of feed efficiency traits at the family level have not been estimated before, highlighting new possibilities for analysing family level group data with genomics. Results showed medium-high heritability for the four traits. ENERGY, which is a direct effect of body lipid content, was negatively correlated to FE (r=-0.60), showing its potential as a selection criterion for feed efficiency. As expected, the genetic correlation between WTGAIN and FI was extremely high in this dataset, which indicates that gross WTGAIN is a very good predictor of FI.