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The MedMax project coordinated by Marc Vandeputte, a senior research engineer at INRAE (GABI) is financed by the European Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fund as part of the "Fishing and Aquaculture Innovation Programme".

The goal of the MedMax project is aimed at improving in an operationnal way the development of commercial sea bass lines resistant to two major pathogens (Encephalopathy and Retinopathy Virus or Nodavirus; Vibrio harveyi):

a)         Providing precise evaluations for survival gain obtained at each generation of selection;

b)         Proposing ways to efficiently communicate on these gains as part of the situations met by the hatchery clients;

c)         Evaluating real data for the efficacy of different selection methods used (or that could be used) by breeders (family selection, genomic selection, marker assisted selection, use of the complete sequence in selection)

d)         Integrating new prediction models for treatment of data from the Sysaaf (Syndicat des Sélectionneurs Avicoles et Aquacoles Français - the French Poultry and Aquaculture Union) to allow its application to selection programmes managed with their technical support.

This project is a follow-up to the FEAMP Gènesea project and the H2020 PerformFISH and AquaIMPACT projects that showed that genetic variability exists and therefore the feasibility of selection on resistance to these pathogens in the populations managed by French breeders. This will consolidate the SYSAAF's leading position of the French marine fish breeding and hatchery industry, which was the first in Europe to implement genomic selection in sea bass.