Researchers create female-only rainbow trout

Christian Pérez Researchers in Mexico have created rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) 'neomales', with potential to produce only females of the species, in order to meet the high demand in the domestic market. Genoveva Ingle de la Mora, researcher at Inapesca, said that after four years of intense research the generation of neomales was achieved, whose lineage is 100 per cent trout females. She explained that the experimental phase of this project consisted of three stages: the first one was obtaining neomale animals and standardising the histological cutting technique for sex identification. The second stage was to conduct continuous studies to evaluate growth, while the third was to generate females through natural fertilisation. The process is useful as females grow larger than males, and produce meat with a greater consistentcy and flavour.

Mrs Ingle de la Mora stressed that this is the first time that the generation of neomales has been achieved through biotechnology in Mexico and she added that this procedure is performed in countries such as Chile and the United States, among others.