Cryopreservation increases egg production by 10–20% in any existing brood stock unit. Stock the units with the desired number of females at the beginning of the season (based on the number of eggs needed), and restock tanks with males as females are stripped and removed. In this way you utilize former unproductive periods to produce milt for the current and coming seasons.
Reduce your footprint
Reducing the number of male fish in a land based facility is a win-win situation. You will see it on the operational costs, and at the same time the overall footprint of your facility will have a far kinder impact.
Health safety
Cryopreserved milt provides an easy method for health screening. Portions of straws or SquarePacks™ are easily sampled when frozen, allowing health assessment on the individual males that will be used for fertilization. This reduces the risk of importing or transferring disease.
Genetic backup
Frozen milt is a handy and safe way to back up aquatic genes without having to keep the actual fish. All samples are individually identified and linked to the male ID in the brood stock database, providing a complete pedigree history.
Frozen embryos – realistic option for full preservation
Gene banks with frozen embryos would offer a complete backup of the genetic material, available for restocking and revive rivers, marine locations or yearclasses. Cryogenetics has already succeeded in cryopreserving cod embryos and is working on a similar development for Atlantic salmon. When operational, this will have a major impact on storage and conservation of fish genes and entire stocks.