Breakthrough in captive breeding of Qinling lenok at Shaanxi Provincial Fisheries Research Institute

In mid-July, good news came from the Qinling lenok breeding bases in Taibai County and Long County of the Shaanxi Provincial Fisheries Research Institute: the institute has achieved breakthrough progress in research on the captive breeding of Qinling lenok. This year, a total of 180,000 eggs were collected and more than 50,000 fry were bred. They are currently growing well, achieving large-scale breeding and laying a solid foundation for the next step of stock enhancement and release.

The Qinling lenok is one of the four national Class II protected aquatic wildlife species in Shaanxi Province. The Qinling lenok breeding project undertaken by the Shaanxi Provincial Fisheries Research Institute is a key project supported by the Ministry of Agriculture during the "12th Five-Year Plan". Over the past 5 years, the project team has successively overcome a series of technical difficulties in the domestication and cultivation of Qinling lenok broodstock, artificial induced spawning, fry hatching, screening of first-feeding diets and disease control, initially establishing a set of practical breeding technical standards, carrying out 2 scientifically marked releases, and obtaining 4 national patents.

During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the project team will, from the aspects of genetic diversity and germplasm resource protection, further intensify protective research on the Qinling lenok using molecular methods, accelerate the process of species protection, population recovery and aquaculture industrialization of the Qinling lenok, so that the protection of aquatic wildlife is implemented in practice, the ecological environment is promoted toward a virtuous cycle, and ecological balance is restored.