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The Effects Of Crossbreeding And Low Fish Meal Diets On Growth-Related Traits In Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha), Katarina H. Doughty

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Growth rate is the most important trait that can be manipulated to create more efficient aquaculture. Crossbreeding, where different populations are bred, has the potential to increase performance through release from inbreeding depression. I crossed a farm population of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) with seven wild populations, then compared growth rate, feed conversion efficiency, swimming speed and metabolic rate between the crossbred and original farmed lines. Crossbreeding resulted in increased growth rates, but had no effect on the other traits. I next evaluated the feasibility of using a diet that replaced fish meal with corn gluten meal and …