WAPT DOT COM AND UPLOAD THEM TO OUR U-LOCAL PAGE. A LOCAL FISHERMAN SAYS HE GOT LUCKY TODAY. TERRY JOHNSON CAUGHT A 33-AND-A- HALF POUND FLATHEAD CATFISH WHILE FISHING AT THE BANKS OF THE RESERVOIR. JOHNSON SAYS HE STOPPED TO FISH AFTER LEAVING WORK AND HE MADE THIS BIG CATCH IN JUST FIVE MINUTES. THIS ISN’T HIS FIRST BIG CATCH. HE SAYS HE’S CAUGHT A 40 POUNDER BEFORE, AND IT USUALLY TAKE A LOT OF PATIENCE TO CATCH ONE THAT BIG. JOHNSON SAYS ALL THE RECENT RAIN HELPED TO STIR UP THE FISH. <USUALLY WHEN THEM STORMS ARE ROLLING IN, IT’LL GET THEM CATFISH FIRED UP AND I HAVE TO COME OUT HERE AND TRY IT AFTER WORK. MY WIFE WILL PROBABLY BE MAD AT ME BECAUSE SHE DON’T KNOW I’M OUT HERE, BUT SHE’S PROBABLY GOING TO SOON! áLAUGHSá> IR
These US scientists are combining catfish and alligator DNA. Here’s why
Updated: 1:18 PM CST Feb 6, 2023
It sounds too bizarre to believe — combining catfish and alligator DNA? But researchers at Auburn University in Alabama are doing to create a hybrid creature.It’s being done in order to reduce the chances of infection, according to reports.Rex Dunham, who’s on the genetic improvement of catfish at Auburn, said about 40% of the fish worldwide die from diseases between the time they’re born to the time they’re harvested, the MIT Technology Review reported. That’s largely because the farm ponds where they’re produced make the fish susceptible to infections. Catfish is a heavily farmed fish: In 2021 alone, 307 million pounds of live catfish were produced in the U.S. — primarily in the southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas.The gene-edited fish were given an antimicrobial protein called cathelicidin that Dunham and other researchers believe make alligators more resistant to infections after being injured, according to AL.com.Some have ethical concerns about the method, but the hybrid catfish are unable to reproduce because of the way the genes are swapped.”I thought: what on Earth? Who would have thought to do this? And why would they?” Greg Lutz, an aquaculture genetics researcher at Louisiana State University, told MIT Technology.The hybrid is still essentially a catfish with alligator genes, Outdoor Life reported.”I’m sure you’ll have people that fully expect that catfish to have a big, long mouth with pointy teeth to bite them,” Lutz added.Is this hybrid a catfish of the future? Only time will tell.
It sounds too bizarre to believe — combining catfish and alligator DNA? But researchers at Auburn University in Alabama are doing to create a hybrid creature.
It’s being done in order to reduce the chances of infection, according to reports.
Rex Dunham, who’s on the genetic improvement of catfish at Auburn, said about 40% of the fish worldwide die from diseases between the time they’re born to the time they’re harvested, the MIT Technology Review reported. That’s largely because the farm ponds where they’re produced make the fish susceptible to infections.
Catfish is a heavily farmed fish: In 2021 alone, 307 million pounds of live catfish were produced in the U.S. — primarily in the southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas.
The gene-edited fish were given an antimicrobial protein called cathelicidin that Dunham and other researchers believe make alligators more resistant to infections after being injured, according to AL.com.
Some have ethical concerns about the method, but the hybrid catfish are unable to reproduce because of the way the genes are swapped.
“I thought: what on Earth? Who would have thought to do this? And why would they?” Greg Lutz, an aquaculture genetics researcher at Louisiana State University, told MIT Technology.
The hybrid is still essentially a catfish with alligator genes, Outdoor Life reported.
“I’m sure you’ll have people that fully expect that catfish to have a big, long mouth with pointy teeth to bite them,” Lutz added.
Is this hybrid a catfish of the future? Only time will tell.
