Artificial breeding of leeches: In 2001, the Taihu Lake Leech Breeding Center in Wujiang, Jiangsu, succeeded

This is news material from 2001 about leech breeding, for the reference of friends interested in artificial leech farming.

    After 4 years of technical research, the technology for artificial breeding and farming of leeches succeeded in Tuncun Town, Wujiang City, Jiangsu Province, making the town the only area in the country at present dedicated to supplying leech fry.

    Leeches have high medicinal value and are mainly used to develop medicines for treating cerebral thrombosis, high blood pressure, stroke and so on. According to reports, due to factors such as water pollution, the number of wild leeches in China has dropped sharply at present, with an annual output of less than 200 tons of dried leeches and an annual shortfall of more than 300 tons. Artificial breeding is the fundamental way to solve the severe shortage of leech resources. In 1997, Tuncun Town cooperated with Nanjing Agricultural University to carry out artificial leech breeding work, and last year bred the first generation of leech fry. After more than a year of trial farming, a complete set of technology from fry breeding to adult leech farming has recently been worked out. This year, 3 million fry are planned to be bred, and fry are expected to begin emerging one after another around May 20. Through posting information online, more than 400,000 fry have already been reserved from all over the country.

    The Tuncun Town Multi-Service Company and the Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Department of Nanjing Agricultural University jointly established the Wujiang City Taihu Lake Leech Breeding Center. Since March this year, two training sessions have been held, and nearly 100 people from Anhui, Zhejiang and parts of Jiangsu Province have received farming technology training. According to the trial farming results, each mu of rice field can stock 20,000 to 15,000 fry, which can be sold after about a year and a half. After deducting costs, the expected income is about 2,500 yuan per mu.