(location, time, and farming system) where they are obtained. A wide range of differences in performance between GIFT and nonGIFT tilapia in Asia is to be expected, given the region’s history of tilapia movements and variable attention to broodstock management, as well as local adaptation of farmed tilapia strains. Despite these complexities, the developers of GIFT demonstrated that selective breeding produced progressively faster growing generations of Nile tilapia, and that application of genetics to tilapia farming—and by inference to tropical aquaculture in general—can result in substantial and rapid development of improved Nile tilapia strains.
Tilapia