Kazakhstan workshop on controlled sturgeon reproduction
Kazakhstan workshop on controlled sturgeon reproduction
In March 6-9, 2017 in Atyrau (Kazakhstan) “Tengizchevroil LLP” company, at the premises of the sturgeon hatchery organized and conducted a methodical workshop on modern methods of control reproduction of sturgeon in Ural river.
Among the participants of the workshop were managers and staff of Ural-Atyrau and Atyrau sturgeon hatcheries, private sturgeon farms, Atyrau branch of Kazakh Research Institute of Fishery, as well as specialists of “Tengizchevroil LLP”. The workshop conducting and discussion of issues, related to increasing the effectiveness of sturgeon hatcheries stock enhancement were performed by Prof. Mikhail Chebanov and Dr. Elena Galich (both Krasnodar, Russia).
In the course of the workshop Prof. Mikhail Chebanov and Dr. Elena Galich demonstrated 14 presentations as follows:
- Modern technology of control reproduction of sturgeon: shortcomings and development of best practices for sturgeon hatcheries.
- Molecular-genetic testing of brood fish and optimization of crossing (selection) of females and males to prevent inbreeding;
- Ultrasound monitoring of the reproductive system of the broodstock (sexing and staging) and revealing of abnormalities and diseases of the internal organs (heart, liver, gall bladder, spleen),ascites of the abdominal cavity, obesity of gonads and internal organs, cystosis, etc., that especially important for selection of wild fish for the long-term domestication program ;
- adjustment of feeding regimes, depending on the stages of maturity and obesity of the internal organs of the reared fish, determined by ultrasound; recommendations on feeds at different stages;
- adaptation (domestication) of wild fish to long-term holding at hatcheries for formation domestic brood stock and general welfare issues of sturgeon in aquaculture);
- optimization of selection and grouping of females for gonadotropic injections (the novel methods and technique used for this);
- best practices applied in similar sturgeon hatcheries to improve the results and survival rate of larvae, in particular enrichment (bio-encapsulation) of live feeds, etc. and others topics.
Also was held the training on mastering of the practical skills of hatchery specialists in non-invasive express- methods for ultrasound diagnostics of sexing and stages of maturity of different sturgeon species, originated from hatchery-built broodstock.
As a summary, were presented some suggestions for selection and distribution of various age graded females and males into groups of different stage of gonad maturity and size, those requires different regimes of holding (depending on temperature, stocking density, feeding norms or feed deprivation for optimization of growth, puberty rate and welfare requirements).
In addition, on request of “Tengizchevroil” employees, an express assessment of the hatchery functional efficiency was performed and (in light of this) preliminary brief recommendations on improving its operation performance were formulated.