Liting Wang , Baohua Dong

1 Hainan Institute of Biotechnology, Haikou, 57022, Hainan, China 2 Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 3   
Received: 15 May, 2025    Accepted: 10 Jun., 2025    Published: 25 Jun., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

As an important farmed fish in the world, tilapia has been widely cultivated in dozens of countries around the world due to its advantages of strong adaptability, rapid growth and low breeding costs. This study summarizes the effects of environmental and genetic factors on the expansion of tilapia farming territory. First, tilapia exhibits excellent ecological adaptability and has ecological plasticity such as wide temperature and salt. It can grow and reproduce normally under different temperature and salinity conditions, and adapt to high-density breeding and low-oxygen environments through regulating physiological mechanisms. Global climate change is changing the suitable areas for tilapia. Rising temperatures have extended the tilapia farming map to high latitudes, and is expected to further expand in tropical and subtropical areas, but extreme environments may bring new breeding risks. Genetic improvement plays a key role in the optimization of tilapia species. The application of high-growth strain breeding, disease-resistant molecular breeding and gender control technology has greatly improved the production performance and stress resistance of tilapia. Through case analysis of the development of tilapia industry in typical countries such as China, Egypt, and Brazil, the impact of environmental conditions and genetic improvement on industrial layout is revealed. Finally, we will discuss the ecological invasion risks faced by global expansion of tilapia, the environmental pressures of high-density breeding and genetic pollution risks, and look forward to the application prospects of technologies such as precise breeding, gene editing, and intelligent breeding in improving the sustainable breeding of tilapia. This study aims to provide scientific basis and decision-making reference for the global layout and sustainable development of tilapia farming.

Tilapia; Ecological adaptability; Climate change; Genetic improvement; Sustainable breeding