Breeding goals & design

Economic values of growth, fillet yield, disease resistance and survival in organic rainbow trout in Denmark

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Abstract

In aquaculture, breeding goal traits are often weighted based on desired gains rather than economic values. While this approach is widely applied and can be justified when data are limited or to control undesirable genetic changes in breeding objective traits, it may not fully optimize economic benefits of genetic improvement, as it relies on predetermined desired or restricted genetic gain, and does not include economic parameters. Including economic values into the breeding goal enables optimization of the economic benefit of genetic improvement, by quantifying the change in profit resulting from a genetic improvement of one unit in a given trait. Economic values can be derived using profit equations or bio-economic models; for complex farming systems such as aquaculture, bio-economic models are particularly useful as they allow detailed modelling of the production system. In rainbow trout, few studies have used bio-economic modelling to derive economic values for breeding goal traits. However, to our knowledge, no economic values have been published for organic aquaculture of rainbow trout. The aim of this study was to derive economic values for production traits in organic rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) farming in Denmark. A deterministic bio-economic model was developed to simulate an organic rainbow trout farm, which differs from conventional systems in several aspects, including lower stocking densities, restricted health treatments, the prohibition of hormone use (precluding the production of all-female populations), and requirement for organic feed. The model included four traits: thermal growth coefficient (TGC; g1/3/day degrees∙1000), fillet yield (%), rainbow trout fry syndrome (RTFS) survival (%) and overall survival (%). RTFS survival affected fish from stocking (10 g) to 100 g, whereas overall survival influenced fish from 100 g to harvest weight (2.5 kg). The model simulated a full production cycle, while economic values were based on an average one-year production period. Economic values were calculated as the change in gross margin following an improvement of one genetic standard deviation in each trait, while keeping the other traits constant. A fixed harvest weight of 2.5 kg was assumed, hence an increase in TGC shortened the production cycle, increasing annual revenues and reducing feed costs. Improvements in fillet yield increased production and revenues. Higher survival, both overall and for RTFS, reduced the number of stocked juveniles, as this number was adjusted according to mortality rate. Consequently, costs for juveniles, feed, and health treatments were reduced. Derived economic values (€∙kg production-1 ∙trait unit-1) were 8.60 for fillet yield (%), 4.87 for TGC (g1/3/day degrees∙1000), 1.71 for overall survival (%) and 0.69 for RTFS survival (%). Results demonstrate that all evaluated traits are of economic importance in organic rainbow trout farming, with fillet yield showing the highest economic value given the current trait units.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Buitenhuis, A., Chu, T., Nielsen, H. & Verweij, M., (2026) “Economic values of growth, fillet yield, disease resistance and survival in organic rainbow trout in Denmark”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2285365. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23658

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