Perspectives on Salmon Aquaculture: Current Status, Challenges and Genetic Improvement for Future Growth

With an estimated global value of US$15.6 billion, farmed salmonids represent a precious food resource, which is also the fastest increasing food producing industry with annual growth of 7% in production. A total average of 3,594,000 metric tonnes was produced in 2020, behind Chinese and Indian carps, tilapias and catfishes. Lead producers of farmed salmonids are Norway, Chile, Faroe, Canada and Scotland, stimulated by increasing global demand and market. However, over the last 2 years, production has been declining, occasioned by effects of diseases as well as rising feed costs. Over the last year, production has declined sharply due to effects of covid-19. This chapter reviews the species in culture, systems of culture, environmental footprints of salmon culture, and market trends in salmon culture. Burden of diseases, especially Infectious pancreatic Necrosis, Infectious salmon anemia and furunculosis, as well as high cost of feed formulation, key challenges curtailing growth of the salmon production industry, are discussed. A review is made of the international salmon genome sequencing effort, selective breeding for disease resistance, and the use of genomics to mitigate challenges of diseases that stifle higher production of salmonids globally