NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Irish DNA tracing firm IdentiGen announced today that it has won a contract to provide DNA analysis services to a Norwegian salmon breeding consortium.
The consortium is composed of salmon breeding companies Marine Harvest and SalmoBreed, along with the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Research. According to IdentiGen, it will perform DNA analysis on hundreds of thousands of fish for the consortium. Additional details of the deal were not disclosed.
"As the cost of genomic testing has fallen, the opportunity for its uptake has accelerated and we are pushing the boundaries of its application in aquaculture, as the potential to improve productivity using these techniques is compelling," Matthew Baranski, a genomics specialist at Marine Harvest, said in a statement.
"As aquaculture production recently surpassed wild-caught fisheries, the importance of genetic improvement across diverse farmed fish and shellfish species cannot be underestimated," IdentiGen Managing Director and Founder Ciaran Meghen added.