SBIR Phase I: Development of Design and Operational Criteria of Continuous Culture Hatchery Techniques for the Production of Brachionus rotundiformis (s-type) rotifers

这项小型企业技术转移第一阶段研究将开发一种强大的、连续的轮虫(圆臂尾轮虫；S型)培养生产系统并将其商业化。无法以符合成本效益的方式持续不断地供应微藻、浮游动物和轮虫饲料，继续成为美国海洋水产养殖业扩张的主要技术“瓶颈”。该项目将侧重于开发大规模交钥匙连续养殖轮虫生产系统所需的基本工程基础设施，并随后向海洋水产养殖业进行营销/销售。这项研究有可能“启动”海洋水产养殖业，消除增加许多海洋物种产量的关键限制因素之一，即鱼苗和鱼种的供应不足和成本高昂。这项研究的更广泛影响是简化和降低海洋鱼苗和鱼种的生产，这将导致海洋孵化场的迅速扩大，从而显著增加池塘、海洋网箱和/或室内循环系统中可用于水产养殖的较低成本的鱼苗和鱼种的供应。养殖受欢迎的海洋鳍鱼将缓解严重威胁或过度捕捞的商业鱼类种群的压力。此外，水产养殖生产将允许在高度受控的生物安全条件下进行养殖，有限地暴露于潜在有害元素，并使用商业配方的饲料保持最佳营养含量。由于美国海产品贸易逆差接近90亿美元，美国有很大的潜力扩大海洋水产养殖生产。

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I research will deveop and commercialize a robust, continuous culture production system for rotifers (Brachionus rotundiformis; s-type). The inability to supply microalgal, zooplankton and rotifers feeds cost-effectively and consistently continues to be a major technological "bottleneck" in the expansion of the marine aquaculture industry in the United States. This project will focus on the development of the fundamental engineering infrastructure required for a large-scale turnkey continuous culture rotifer production system, and subsequent marketing/sales to the marine aquaculture industry. This research has the potential to "jump-start" the marine aquaculture industry by eliminating one of the key limiting factors to increasing the production of many marine species, i.e. the unavailability and the high cost of fry and fingerlings. The broader impacts of this research are simplification and cost reduction for the production of marine fry and fingerling, which will lead to rapid expansion of marine hatcheries and hence a dramatic increase in the availability of lower cost marine fry and fingerlings for aquaculture grow-out in ponds, ocean cages and/or indoor recirculating systems. Aquaculture production of popular marine finfish will relieve the pressure on severely threatened or overfished commercial fish stocks. Furthermore, aquacultural production will allow culture under highly controlled, biosecure conditions with limited exposure to potentially harmful elements and using commercially formulated diets maintain optimal nutritional content. With the U.S. seafood trade deficit at close to $9 billion dollars, there is a significant potential for expansion of marine aquaculture production in the United States.