Castro, M.S.C., Empig, L.T., Pacatang, A.E., dela Cruz, A.A.
Abstract:
Penaeus monodon Fabricius postlarvae are commonly produced from wild-gravid spawners from the sea. In recent years, however, shortage and high incidence of viral and bacterial diseases in wildstocks have become a serious threat to the sustained production of high seedstocks. Although techniques for captive broodstock rearing, maturation and spawning have been defined in P. monodon (Aquacop 1977b, 1979, 1983; Benzie 1995) no account has been reported on the production of this species in commercial scale.
In 1991, the San Miguel Foods, Inc. (SMFI) (a wholly-owned subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation, the Philippines largest publicly-held food and beverage company since 1890) embarked on a project on broodstock and maturation of P. monodon with the ultimate aim of providing an alternative to dependence on wild broodstocks which are facing increasing pressure in the 21st century. Since then, SMFI has achieved the following research outputs: (1) completion of life cycle of local strains of P. monodon; (2) formulation of broodstock and maturation feeds; (3) incorporation of disease diagnostics of selected stocks; (4) broodstock rearing of twenty-one (21) families; (5) determination of inbreeding effects in four (4) generation broodstocks, and ; (6) maturation and spawning of shrimp from twenty-four (24) intrastrain and interstrain crosses.
Total nauplii and post larval production from captive broodstock from 1991 to 1995 was 97.8 million and 26.22 million, respectively under sub-optimal water quality conditions in Negros Island where growout activities are concentrated. (Table)
Growth, survival and feed conversion efficiencies are compared with those obtained from wildstocks.
Current efforts are focused on mass scale production of nauplii for larval rearing in identified hatcheries and a joint venture with the private sector in at least two (2) strategic areas in the Philippines to expand SMFI's capability in broodstock rearing and maturation of P. monodon.
This paper summarizes SMFI's experience on the research and commercialization of P. monodon fry from captive broodstock.
(San Miguel Foods, Inc., Population Center Building, Second Floor, Pasong Tame Extension, Makati City, Philippines)
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