Title: Tiran Group from Israel is promoting All-Male Fresh Water Prawn culture

throughout the world based on Ben-Gurion University Technology.

While running the business of shipping and logistics for many years, Tiran Group

diversified its activities through investing in profitable aquaculture products and

technologies from Israel. This move started with the promotion of the highly

demanded Israeli Red Tilapia which is well appreciated for its high quality and unlike

other Red Tilapia is exhibiting a typical red color. At the end of 2007, Tiran group made

an agreement with Kibbutz Nir David aquaculture (which developed advanced tilapia

lines for more than thirty years, and serves as source of Israeli red tilapia) to promote

red tilapia in Asia.

In 2010 Tiran Group contacted Ben-Gurion University and made an agreement for an

exclusive license on a patent that included a newly discovered gene and its use for all-

male fresh water prawn production. Since then, Tiran has been investing in R&D and

collaborating with the research group of Professor Amir Sagi at the Department of Life

Sciences and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev. Based on this

agreement Tiran started to commercialize this Patent globally. In 2012 the first

commercial production of All-Male progeny was actively pursued by the company in

Vietnam. Towards the end of 2013 the all-male freshwater technology was brought to

China. In addition, commercial relationships were established with prawn growers in

Malaysia and Tiran is promoting its relationships with customers in the region

including Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and more.

The technology

Commercial production of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii has been the

subject of research and commercial enterprise for several decades. This species is

native to the tropical Indo-Pacific region of the World and is an economically important

crop in China, India, Vietnam, and many other Asian countries. It has high demand as

a food item and as an export product. The reduction of wild stocks has resulted in a

gradual increase in volume of traditional prawn culture. However a decrease in culture

during recent years called for the introduction of advanced technologies to increase

yields.

This is where the technology of producing all-male prawns developed by Professor

Amir Sagi at the Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute for

Biotechnology in the Negev, and registered as a patent, stepped in and is commercially

promoted and implemented by Tiran Group on exclusive basis.

The final goal of Professor Amir Sagi project is increasing prawn yields. The project

started under the microscope with microsurgical manipulation of a male specific

endocrine gland. The manipulation resulted with sex reversal of males into females

with reproduction ability. However, this was a laboratory procedure, complicated,

difficult and not suitable for real production. The commercial technology came to

reality when Professor Amir Sagi used specific molecular sex markers to distinguish the

male and female at a very young age. At this young age microinjections were used to

cause sex reversal of males through silencing the insulin-like androgenic gland into

females. The females that were created (termed neo-females) produce large amounts

of All-Male progeny with high reproducibility and success rate.

All-male freshwater prawn raised by farmer customer

Following the establishment of the All-Male technology, wide public concern was

expressed regarding the GMO nature of the inventions. However, the silencing

technology is made at an early stage in life of males (that have the ZZ sex chromosomes)

which are made into neo-females with the ZZ genotype. These sex reversed males are

with the ZZ genotype and no genomic modification is made. Moreover, when crossing

these neo-females with normal males the result is of all male ZZ progeny to be grown

as All-Male in the farm. Thus actually the farmer is growing normal males and selling

normal males. Studies were published by Prof. Sagi to prove the safely in use of this

technology and the patented technology is clearly NON GMO. The patented

technology was registered by Tiran worldwide.

All-male freshwater prawns are much bigger than normal freshwater prawns

Why all-male freshwater prawns? Males are much larger than females. Female may

grow up to 25-50 gram over 5-6 months growout season while the males grow to 80-

100 gram and more at the same period of time and the same feeding rate. Normally,

when growing All-Male freshwater prawns it is hard to show their advantage at the

first 3 months of growing. However when prawns reach maturity after 3 months, they

show the obvious growing advantage compared to normal mix population of

freshwater prawns.

Growing table show all-male freshwater prawn (yellow line), normal freshwater prawn (black

line), all-female from normal freshwater prawns (blue line) Current situation:

In Vietnam, the All-Male PLs produced by Tiran achieved a success from production of

All Male juveniles up to sales at market size. The high yield performance won farmers

confidence in a way that customers today favor All-male juveniles. In China, the all-

male freshwater prawn juvenile production is on a rise but still limited due to the

production capacity of Tiran’s farm. Tiran concluded agreements to cooperate with

leading hatcheries to produce the All-Male PLs in order to increase supply and meet

the high demands of farmers for grow out. Future:

The prawn marketing is done by New Horizon (a subsidiary company of Tiran) in means

of sales of larvae produced by New Horizon in its own farms in China and Vietnam to

hatcheries to produce post- larvae and then sell these to raising farms and Sale of post-

larvae produced by New Horizon to raising farms directly, or through distributors.

Tiran is geared for large scale of production of all-male PLs from Neo Female produced

in its facilities in Israel. To ensure best performance Tiran is introducing a package of

new technologies such as water treatment systems and experts that could supervise

and support the production.

Summary:-

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that more than

40 percent of the seafood consumed worldwide is coming from aquaculture and that

production must double to meet the expected demand by 2030.

Tiran inspiration is to promote the All-Male freshwater prawn technology into the huge

markets of Asia in General and China & Vietnam in particular with the intention to gain

a significant impact on the global Giant Freshwater Prawn market.

For more information you are welcome to contact Tiran Group:-

Haim Avioz or Eyal Avioz – Tiran Group of companies and New Horizon

Tel: +972 4 8509000 ** Email: havioz@tiran.co.il and eavioz@tiran.co.il