The Benefits Of Aquaculture

Introduction

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food producing sectors, and is gradually replacing the deficit in world capture fisheries that has been caused by overfishing (Maclean et al., 2003). In the context of both the dietary benefits of fish consumption and the increasing contribution made to fish production by aquaculture, it is clear that aquaculture is now undergoing and will continue to undergo a revolution in quality and quantity of production. Since fish can be readily improved by application of transgenic technology, it is clearly timely to consider what genetically modified (GM) fish are likely to offer in the future, both in terms of benefits and disadvantages.

The process by which a foreign or modified gene is introduced in the genome of an organism using the in vitro genetic techniques of genetic engineering is known as Transgenesis. The organism so produced is called transgenic or Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) or Living Modified Organism (LMO). The technique was first of all successfully introduced in mice as a model and this triggered a series of attempts on gene transfer in economically important animals including fish. The first successful gene transfer for fish was reported in China in 1985 (Zhu et al., 1985). This technology offers an excellent and rapid opportunity for modifying genetic traits like growth enhancement, disease resistance, production of pharmaceuticals etc. among wide range of commercially important species like fishes,