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CRISPR Salmon

CRISPR Salmon

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Genome editing – a game-changer in salmon farming: Conditions for social and moral acceptance

Fish farming is the most important Norwegian bioeconomy industry, but it is also controversial for ethical and environmental reasons. The basis for this production of biomass for food is the salmon, an iconic animal in Norwegian culture. One promising approach to solving some of aquaculture’s production challenges, and to ensure higher value creation in aquaculture is using genome-editing techniques such as the CRISPR system. This emerging technology enables rapid and precise changes to the genetic basis of relevant salmon traits. However, unless it is introduced in a socially and morally acceptable way, promised improvements and solutions cannot be utilised. This project aims to determine the acceptability of genome edited salmon through an empirical ethics approach combining descriptive and normative studies. We have set up a relevant interdisciplinary research team supported by a network of national and international experts and industry representatives.

The project will identify, by literature review and a foresight exercise with invited experts, the spectrum of present and future possibilities in genome editing salmon, as well as relevant ethical issues in this and other breeding approaches. We will study public views on the moral value of salmon and of human-salmon interactions as it is expressed in public documents, media and research. A focus group and interview study of public and stakeholder views on the acceptability of genome editing salmon will be conducted, in order to determine conditions for social acceptability of using the technology in salmon farming. Finally, an analysis of the moral acceptability will be conducted on the basis of the empirical studies and academic texts on animal and virtue ethics. The study will provide important input for the aquaculture sector, for research on genome editing in animal husbandry, and for regulatory purposes. In addition, it will be relevant for academic debates on empirical ethics and animal ethics.

The project has an external website: https://www.ntnu.edu/crispr-salmon


Contact

Anne Ingeborg Myhr

SVP Biotechnology and Circular Economy - Tromsø

anmy@norceresearch.no
+47 56 10 78 80

Project facts

Name

Genome editing - a game-changer in aquaculture: Conditions for social and moral acceptance (CRISPRsalmon)

Status

CONCLUDED

Duration

01.03.19 - 31.08.23

Location

Tromsø

Total budget

9.400.000 NOK

Project website

https://www.ntnu.edu/crispr-salmon

Research areas

Research group

Research Topics

Funding

Research Council of Norway (RCN)

Prosjekteier

NTNU

Project members

Bjørn Kåre Myskja
Lotte Holm
Lars Øystein Ursin
Siri Granum Carson
Hannah Winther

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