Borghild Hillestad

Borghild joined the Benchmark Genetics Norway (former SalmoBreed) team in January 2014. As our Genetics Manager, she worked closely with both clients and partners such as laboratories, testing stations and research environments, to make sure the SalmoBreed Atlantic salmon strain developed into an even more robust and fast-growing salmon strain. In her work, she focused on breeding and genetics management for a sustainable salmon population; innovation and development to find better phenotypes and increased animal welfare; and implementation of new genomic methods and technologies to increase genetic gain and accuracy. Today she is working as Director of Fish Welfare at Viking Aqua and is responsible for the fish welfare in the company.

Borghild completed her PhD in Breeding and Genetics at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in 2015, where she studied genomic inbreeding and homozygosity utilizing the bovine genome. She is also running her own company together with her husband, currently focusing on free-range pig production and just recently wine production.

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