Comparison of Growth, Body Composition, and Stress Responses of USDA103, USDA403, Industry, and Fast Growing Lines of Channel Catfish

Production traits such as growth, feed efficiency, survival, and fillet yield are economically important traits and an improvement in one or more of these traits will benefit the U.S. catfish farming industry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 103 line of channel catfish was developed jointly between the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Catfish Genetics Research Unit, Stoneville, Mississippi, and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center (NWAC), Stoneville. The USDA103 line of catfish (also referred to as the NWAC103 line) is being selected for increased growth, fillet yield, and resistance to enteric septicemia of catfish (ESC) and being compared with other genetic groups of catfish having potential commercial use. The USDA103 strain was developed from broodfish obtained in 1992 from the Uvalde National Fish Hatchery, Uvalde, Texas, USA. Many studies have compared growth rates of the USDA103 with other strains of channel catfish and have found that the USDA103 channel catfish exhibit superior growth characteristics (Silverstein et al. 1999; Wolters et al. 2000; Li et al. 2001; Jackson et al. 2003; Bosworth et al. 2004a; Peterson and Small 2006). The faster growth of the USDA103 strain of channel catfish is typically attributed to their ability to consume more feed (Li et al. 2001). The USDA103 strain has been selected for two generations for improved growth, fillet