Research into infectious salmon anemia could provide the pathway for genetic editing in aquaculture using tools such as CRISPR, says Undercurrent News. The chief executive of Benchmark Holdings told the business news site that genetic editing is a logical next step following a multiyear study to map the genome of salmon.
Benchmark will join university and government scientists from Britain, France, and Norway in investigating salmon anemia. The chief executive of Aquagen, a breeding company that supplies fish eggs to aquaculture companies, has suggested that gene editing could end the bane of parasitic sea lice on Atlantic salmon by mimicking the DNA of coho salmon, which are immune to the lice, said Undercurrent News.
A scientist at Nofima, a food research institute based in Norway, said Benchmark, which offers traditional breeding techniques to salmon farmers, is ready to use genomic tools, including gene editing, said Undercurrent News.
At the moment, the only genetically modified food animal approved for consumption in the United States is the AquAdvantage salmon from AquaBounty Technologies, a U.S. company. AquaBounty announced its first sale of the GMO salmon last fall — 10,000 pounds to customers in Canada in August 2017. U.S. sales have been blocked by congressional requirements for labels that identify the fish as GMOs.