Genetic evaluation of a selective breeding program for common carp Cyprinus carpio conducted from 2004 to 2014

BACKGROUND: The study evaluated genetic progress of a breeding program for common carp undergoing four generations of selection for increased harvest body weight from 2004 to 2014. The pedigree included 17,351 individual fish which were offspring of 342 sires and 352 dams. Genetic parameters for body weight at about two years of age and survival rate during grow-out period were also estimated using the residual maximum likelihood method applied to a two-trait linear mixed model. Direct response in body weight and correlated changes in survival were measured as the differences in: i) estimated breeding values (EBVs) between the two lines; and ii) EBVs of the selection line between successive generations. RESULTS: Direct gain in body weight ranged from 0.20 to 0.90 genetic standard deviation units and averaged 7 % of the base population per generation (two years per generation). Correlated changes in survival were negligible, indicating that the selection program for high growth did not have any adverse effect on this trait in the present population. The heritability for body weight was moderate (0.17, s.e. 0.05), whereas the estimate for survival was low (0.05–0.17) but significantly different from zero across linear mixed and threshold generalised statistical models. Our results predict that body weight or/and other growth related traits will continue to respond to selection and that there is potential to improve survival through direct genetic means. Correlated improvement in survival to selection for increased body weight was hardly achieved, as the genetic correlation between the two traits was not different from zero. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that selection for increased harvest body weight resulted in significant improvement in growth performance of the present population of common carp Cyprinus carpio. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-015-0256-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.