Introduction
Tilapia is an African fish, famous for its hardiness, good market value and affordable price
(Shelton 2002). The majority of tilapia culture is outside Africa (Shelton 2002). Asia is the
largest producer of farmed tilapia (FAO 2009). Several tilapia selective breeding programs
have been established in Asian countries (Bolivar 1998; Gupta and Acosta 2004; Tayamen
2004; Zimmermann and Natividad, 2004).
The Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) strain is well known worldwide because
of its high performance. A first phase of the project ended in 1997 after five generations of
selection (Gupta and Acosta 2004). In 2002, the GIFT population in the WorldFish Center
Malaysia was established based on the sixth generation of GIFT from Philippines (Ponzoni et
al. 2005). In Malaysia, the breeding program continued the selection for live weight at
harvest time (LW) to improve the growth rate. The GIFT population has already undergone
seven generations of selection since it was introduced in Malaysia. A review of its progress
and performance is timely in order to decide the program’s future direction. In this paper we
report phenotypic and genetic parameters for live weight based on the data collected over
eight generations, as well as the selection response achieved during that period.