On October 16-22, Ákos had the opportunity to visit Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, USA. The visit was part of and exchange program between the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and MATE. During the last 5 years, we had the pleasure of hosting undergraduate students from CALS on a summer internship and now it was our turn to see and experience the atmosphere of Cornell. Ákos was accompanied by two colleagues from the Department of Zoology and Ecology of MATE, Professor Péter István Nagy and senior lecturer Gergely Boros as well as by Erasmus+ International C ..read more

It was a great privilege to take part in the organization of Aquaculture Europe 2023 held in beautiful Vienna, Austria on September 18-21. The team of MATE had a visible presence at the meeting by providing the program co-chair (Professor Béla Urbányi) and several members of the local organizing committee, chairing and co-chairing several sessions and involving students in the daily organizational work. It was an incredible experience working alongside committed professionals and meeting friends. Looking forward to Aquaculture Europe 2024 in Copenhagen next year ..read more

 A new paper has been published in the journal Aquaculture Reports in collaboration with our colleagues from the Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana and the Lillafüred Trout Farm in Hungary. Enjoy! Marinović, Z., Lujić, J., Sušnik Bajec, S., Djurdjevič, I., Snoj, A., Hoitsy, G., Urbányi, B., Horváth, Á., 2022. Evaluation of triploid rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss as a surrogate parent for brown trout Salmo trutta m. fario and grayling Thymallus thymallus. Aquac. Reports 24, 101163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aqrep.2022.101163 Abstract: Surrog ..read more

Within the frames of the Hungarian-Croatian bilateral project, between May 9-13th we have enjoyed the hospitality of Ana Gavrilović, her team from the University of Zagreb as well as the staff of the Aquarium Pula in Pula, Croatia. The goal of the project is to develop cryopreservation methods for the gametes and larvae of various bivalvian species found in the Adriatic sea including the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), the mediterranean scallop (Pecten jacobaeus) and possibly for the critically endangered noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis) whose populations have been severely affected by th ..read more

 Last week, Ákos and Professor Béla Urbányi, director of the Institute of Aquaculture and Environmental Safety has attended the meeting hosted by the European Aquaculture Society (EAS) to initiate preparation for the most important annual EAS event, the Aquaculture Europe conference in 2023. The meeting will be held in Vienna, Austria and is scheduled for September, 2023. The main theme of the meeting will be balanced diversity in aquaculture development. As Vienna lies in the heart of Central Europe, the preparatory activities also involved the participation of several parties, including ..read more

After a 5-year hiatus, we finally were able to return to beautiful Slovenia! Thanks to the invitation by our colleague, Dr. Simona Sušnik Bajec of the Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana we were able to collaborate with her and her PhD student Tjaša Kodela on the reproduction of the grayling (Thymallus thymallus). Betti and Ákos spent 3 days working at the hatchery of the Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia in Kobarid, stripping sperm and eggs and checking sperm quality using CASA. Grayling spawning has drastically reduced during the last ..read more

A new paper with Betti's first authorship has been published in Aquaculture Reports. Enjoy:  Bernadett Pataki, Ákos Horváth, Gergely Mészáros, Nevena Kitanović, András Ács, Árpád Hegyi, József Molnár, Balázs Csorbai, Béla Urbányi. 2022. Adjustment of common carp sperm concentration prior to cryopreservation: Does it matter? Aquaculture Reports Volume 24, June 2022, 101109 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aqrep.2022.101109  Abstract  Absorbance and computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) was used to assess the sperm concentration of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) as an alternative to ..read more

 Between October 24th and November 26th, this year we had the pleasure of hosting Marta Blanes and Leonor Ferrão of the Group of Aquaculture and Biodiversity under the leadership of Prof. Juan F. Asturiano at the Polytechnical University of Valencia in Spain. Marta and Leonor were trained by Zoran in various techniques including isolation of germline stem cells (GSCs), treatment of embryos with  morpholinos to induce sterility as well as transplantation of GSCs into suitable recipents. Their work was part of the EELGONIA project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovatio ..read more

 Zoran and Ákos attended the Aquaculture Europe 2021 meeting that was held on October 4-7 in Funchal, the capital city of the beautiful island of Madeira in Portugal. The meeting was organized by the European Aquaculture Society and attended by more than 1400 participants. The conference was of special interest for us because of the opportunity to meet our friends Juan F. Asturian of the Polytechnical University of Valencia (Spain) and Elsa Cabrita from CCMAR and University of Algarve (Portugal) who was also co-chairing the session on Reproduction. The conference was very well-organized w ..read more

Ákos and Betti along with our colleagues Dr. Balázs Kovács and Réka Balogh from the Department of Molecular Ecology have participated at the 56th Croatian and 16th International Symposium of Agriculture which was held between September 5-10th in Vodice, Croatia. Both Betti and Ákos presented the results of the group in several talks during the session on Fisheries, Game Management and Beekeeping.  Prior to the meeting we also had the pleasure to visit the hatchery of the largest Croatian marine aquaculture company, Cromaris which is situated in the little coastal town of Nin. We had a gui ..read more