Genetic improvement of farmed tilapias: biochemical characterization of strain differences in Nile tilapia

Four African wild strains (Egypt, Ghana, Senegal and Kenya) and four established Asian farmed strains of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (popularly known in the Philippines as 'Taiwan', 'Thailand', 'Singapore' an 'Israel') were analysed electrophoretically at 30 protein loci to estimate genetic differences among the strains. The implications of these results to the ongoing tilapia genetic improvement programme in the Philippines are discussed.