Can we standardise data from research and development into broodstock management?
Biology is complex, and many factors affect the reproductive performance of fish or shrimp. Public and private organizations researching the reproduction of common and new aquaculture species go through a range of trials and analyses that include genetics, reproductive biology, nutrition, environmental and social parameters and more.
One challenge for these research groups, including those from large fish or shrimp farming companies, is recording all the parameters measured in these trials and storing them in an effective way so that they can be analyzed. Ideally, the impact of each parameter as well as the interactions between them should be measured and analyzed. The most common tool for this purpose are spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. These applications however are bidimensional (rows/columns) and the result, as most of us know, is a vast number of spreadsheets used to store and analyze data from each trial. This means that there is no data standard across groups or even withing organizations, and that data analysis is complex and often critical factors are missed in research.
As part of the EU-funded NewTechAqua project (https://www.newtechaqua.eu/) the Aquaculture Farm Management software company Aquanetix (www.aquanetix.com) has developed a broodstock management module that may just be a unifier for all needs from these research groups. Aquanetix Broodstock allows users to record and track all events linked to individually tagged fish or shrimp, allowing you to follow individual growth, maturation, genetics, health and much more. You can create breeder groups, record treatments to each group, measure the impact in terms of reproductive performance (fecundity for example) whilst tracking all key environmental parameters the breeders are exposed to as well as the nutrition (feedings) supplied to each group.
Data is stored in the Aquanetix relational database and is accessible through a business intelligence platform where users may prepare analyses and reports or export chunks of data to other applications for more detailed statistical studies.
Users can also upload and store files and images related to the fish, such as the report on nutritional analysis of the feeds used, or events that happened on specific days, e.g. a team photo after the end of a trial, or microscopy images for eggs collected. Check this video prepared for NewTechAqua’s 1st Annual Meeting for a presentation of the Broodstock Management module (https://youtu.be/Fc8QdlpMC5k).
Aquanetix Broodstock is part of the Aquanetix software that includes a mobile App for data collection that users access with a PIN code, allowing project managers to audit data quality. The Aquanetix application also follows groups of fish from egg to harvest. If you wish to learn more about Aquanetix Broodstock please contact us on [email protected].
Post written by:
Diogo Thomaz, Aquanetix Limited
For more information, visit: www.aquanetix.com