On 24 November, coinciding with Aquaculture Day organised by the General Secretariat for Fisheries, AZTI received the 14th JACUMAR Research in Aquaculture Award from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for the project “Method for identifying sex in fish belonging to the Acipenseridae family”.

Led by Miguel Ángel Pardo, researcher in AZTI’s Food Integrity and Safety omeness area, this method is based on a real-time PCR technique that makes it possible to determine at an early stage the sex of different sturgeon species (A. baerii, A. naccarii, A. gueldenstaedtii and the ANB hybrid) using only a small tissue or blood sample.

The method, validated on almost 300 specimens and with an accuracy of over 97% in the ANB hybrid, is protected through intellectual property registration and a PCT patent application currently under review (PCT/EP2024/088437). Until now, sex differentiation was carried out mainly using ultrasound scans, which are more invasive procedures and can only be applied at advanced stages of development.

The system developed by AZTI requires only a small tissue or blood sample, which makes it easier to apply in juvenile stages and allows feeding and husbandry practices to be tailored from the very beginning of the production cycle.

This tool will enable aquaculture companies to select females from early stages, reduce rearing costs, optimise sex-specific feeding and husbandry, and improve the profitability and sustainability of caviar production.

The work was carried out in collaboration with Caviar Riofrío (Osborne Group) and is fully aligned with the purpose of the JACUMAR Award: to promote applied research that strengthens the competitiveness of the aquaculture sector and supports more sustainable production.

The JACUMAR Award, worth 20,000 euros, is granted annually to research projects that bring innovation and improvements to Spanish aquaculture.

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