SBIR-STTR Award

One of the requirements of a sustainable aquaculture industry is the capacity to control reproduction in captivity and acquire high-quality eggs and sperm, however most captive fish experience some degree of reproductive dysfunction. To answer this problem, hormone administration has been developed as an effective method to induce maturation and obtain fertilized eggs. Although this technology has only been able to address reproduction control in larger fish species. Currently, there is no spawning hormone implant available for small fish, less than 1kg fish; an industry that includes marine baitfish, marine ornamentals, and conservation dependent species. This project will, therefore, be novel in the development of an implant suitable for smaller fish.

Hatchery production is one of the largest costs and restraints to fin fish aquaculture and spawning aids are ranked as a high priority drug required by the aquaculture industry. Exogenous hormone administration has been developed to induce maturation and obtain fertilized eggs. While the GnRH hormone and slow-release vehicle are not new their combination into a commercialized product that can work be used for a range of fish sizes and an innovative application gun to control accurate dosing are novel. This project will build on Phase I research which demonstrated slow release implants can yield2-3x higher juvenile fish production in hatcheries compared to current products on the market. This project aims to commercialize this implant through the accomplishment of three tasks: (1)optimize the hormone active ingredient analogue to be used in the final implant formulation(2) conduct studies required for FDA registration including drug efficacy and animal toxicity and (3) develop a new implant applicator gun that can allow for accurate custom implant dosing. Objectives 1 and 2 require trials on fish. Pinfish will be used as the benchmark species with Florida Pompano and Bellgus Angelfish also utilized to demonstrate implant expansion to other fish species. Objective 3 will be a collaboration between the PD a Industrial designer and a marketing firm with prototypes trialed at five different commercial aquaculture farms. The outcome of this project will be two products on the path to commercialization: (1) a spawning implant and (2) an innovative applicator gun.