Aquafeed Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

Vol 14 Issue 1 January 2022

AQUAFEED Advances in processing & formulation An Aquafeed.com publication

ADVANCES IN ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS Shrimp peptide concentrate Antioxidants, nucleotides and enzymes Eco-efficient aquafeeds Published by: Aquafeed Media, S.L.U. www.aquafeed.com info@aquafeed.com

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AQUAFEED

VOL 14 ISSUE 1 2022

Contents

SCPs AND ITS ATTRACTABILITY IN SHRIMP 29 Study found that SCPs do not have an impact on the palatability or attractability of feeds to shrimp.

SHRIMP PEPTIDE CONCENTRATE 13

PHENOLIC ANTIOXIDANTS 16

WASTE-TO-FEED PROTEIN 32

A concentrated source of bioactive shrimp peptides reduces the dependence on marine ingredients while maintaining palatability, intake and performance of fish and shrimp feeds.

The combination of synergistic antioxidants, both natural and synthetics, can slow down the oxidation process more effectively than the individual components separately.

Recent trial results showed improved performance in aquaculture species fed on diets with SCPs produced using low value-added organic process water generated by food manufacturers.

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AQUAFEED CONTACT US Editorial: editor@aquafeed.com Editor/Publisher: Lucía Barreiro Consulting Editor: Suzi Dominy Technical Editors: Peter Hutchinson, Albert Tacon, Ph.D Assistant Editor: Marissa Yanaga Conferences and webinars: info@aquafeed.com Advertising enquiries/request media pack: sales@aquafeed.com Accounts & all other enquiries: info@aquafeed.com

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Adisseo..................................................................... 2

VOL 14 ISSUE 1 2022

Contents 6

Interview with Jesper Hedegaard Clausen

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News Review

13 Shrimp peptide concentrate boosts palatability and growth performance in fish and shrimp

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Phenolic antioxidants: The science of food chemistry

20 Effective additive use for Pacific white shrimp 23

Maximizing profits in fish feeds

29 The inclusion of SCPs in feed does not affect its attractability to shrimp

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Waste-to-protein for greener future

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I mproving aquaculture productivity by meeting dietary omega-3 and omega-6 requirements of Atlantic salmon

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Eco-efficient aquafeeds using emergent ingredients

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Insects as aquafeed ingredients: Opportunities and trends

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Insect meal improves the survival rate and boosts performance when replacing fishmeal in whiteleg shrimp diets

New insect-derived ingredient can drive performance and boost health in shrimp aquaculture systems *Cover photo

Oxiris Chemicals......................................................19

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Insects in aquaculture feed: Nutrition and beyond

Wenger.....................................................................22

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Improving fish value and human health via algal derived omega-3 DHA

Extru-Tech.................................................................25 F3 Challenge...........................................................46 Hatchery Feed & Management..........................53

Columns 26 Albert Tacon – Aquaculture production in 2019

World Aquaculture Society...................................60

57 Mustapha Aba – The three dimensions of aquaculture’s sustainability in Africa for food safety

59 Aquafeed Media, S.L.U., Ames, 15220 A Coruña, Spain.

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Calendar of events

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FROM THE EDITOR A new era for Aquafeed.com With a new year comes a new start for Aquafeed: I am pleased to announce that our Executive Editor, Lucía Barreiro has taken over the reins with effect January 1, 2022.

Aquafeed has come a long way in 23 years and now seems a good time to lay out how it all came about. Its origins can really be traced to Milling, an old and venerable UK flour milling magazine that I was hired to edit back in 1986.

Milling was itself an offshoot of one of the world’s oldest magazines, the agricultural commodities publication, the Public Ledger, founded in London in 1760. Over the next 13 years, with the support of the publisher, Turret Wheatland, I was able to internationalize the magazine and introduce animal feed as a major focus, transforming it into International Milling, Flour & Feed, and launch the associated International Milling Directory.

By the early nineties, before the term “aquafeed” had been coined, I was being asked for information on fish and shrimp feed and nutrition. By then I was Turret’s agrifood group publisher and decided to test the water with an aquaculture day as part of our Feed Ingredients conference in Singapore. The response was tremendous, and it was clear that aquaculture feed was more than an offshoot of animal feed and was a major part of the aquaculture value chain.

By 1998, Turret had been bought by the Dutch Rai group, and my new bosses weren’t as convinced as I that

this was a definable industry with specific information needs, so I brought in the then aquaculture guru at FAO, Dr. Albert Tacon, and, together, we persuaded them to let me give it a go. So International Aquafeed, along with the International Aquafeed Directory, were born. Little did I know that within six months I’d be moving to Hawai’i.

I continued to edit it remotely until a new editor could be found. The magazine subsequently changed hands a couple of times but continues today as Fish Farming Technology - International Aquafeed.

By then the internet was becoming an everyday part of our lives, and it presented the perfect opportunity to make aquafeed information available to a much wider audience and to do so without charge. This was unchartered water for me and the industry, but thanks to the support of our advertisers and readers, and a great team, Aquafeed.com and Hatchery Feed & Management have grown to be the leading media platforms they are today. Lucía has played a major role in creating quality content in our publications and webinars, and I know that it will only grow better under her leadership.

I am not entirely disappearing. I will still be involved in an advisory capacity. Though less visible, I hope to still stay connected with the many wonderful friends and supporters I have made in this amazing industry over a quarter of a century.

Aloha and a hui hou, Suzi Dominy

Aquafeed.com .

WEBINARS TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON FOR UPDATES, VISIT aquacultureconferences.com

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

Jesper Hedegaard Clausen is Director for Global Aquaculture Nutrition & Support at De Heus.

INTERVIEW with Jesper Hedegaard Clausen AQ: Please tell us about yourself. What has been your journey in aquafeeds? How did you get to where you are today?

JHC: I am currently working for De Heus as director for Global Aquaculture Nutrition & Support based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I have lived and worked in Southeast Asia for more than 20 years and have had the pleasure to work for universities, government and the last seven years in the feed industry. I love aquaculture and all the challenges and opportunities we have in our industry. Feed is very important in aquaculture, and the feed sector has a great opportunity to help develop more efficient feed and feed application programs to benefit the producers of fish and shrimp. Aquaculture produces safe, healthy and wholesome food for

consumers across the world, and it is great to be part of this sector and to support its development.

AQ: De Heus has been producing feeds and feed components for more than a century. How did it all start?

JHC: On April 28, 1911, Hendrik Anthonie de Heus founded H.A. de Heus grain and flour merchant. From the start of De Heus’ business in 1911, we have always valued local businesses and their heritage as a strong foundation to drive sustainable growth. The respect and understanding of the independent local farmers are a couple of the key explanations for De Heus growth and success. Today De Heus is still a family-owned company. As our two CEO’s, Koen and Co De Heus say

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“Every day, we work towards creating better access to safe and healthy food for a growing world population.

We do so by providing our customers with the products and services they need to look after their animals and manage the sustainable development of their businesses.”.

Today, De Heus has more than 10,000 employees worldwide and is one of the largest feed mills in the world in terms of volume feed produced.

The entrepreneurial spirit and respect for the independent farmers are still fundamentals and part of the De Heus “DNA”.

AQ: With the acquisition of a feed mill in Vietnam in 2011, De Heus entered the aquafeed industry and has been expanding across different markets. Where is the company now in terms of size, markets served and aquafeed volume?

JHC: Entering into the aquafeed market was a strategic decision by De Heus. The strong growth expectations in aquaculture production globally and the nature of the aquaculture industry as a developing and very innovative industry spoke to the core values in De Heus.

The warm water species market was especially seen as an opportunity for us to grow and contribute with our nutritional knowledge and focus on customers. Today, Vietnam is still one of our main aquaculture markets, but we also have production in Indonesia, Myanmar, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, and soon in Uganda. In addition to the countries where we produce, we also serve a number of countries for export.

With the recent (2021) acquisition of the feed activities of Masan Meat Life, there was also a big impact on our aquaculture business. Proconco, which is the leading brand in the domain of aquaculture, was part of this acquisition in the hands of Masan. By the acquisition, as mentioned above, we also took over the Proconco brand, a well-known feed brand in Vietnam, we are getting close to one of our milestones of 1.0 M MT of aquafeed per year. We achieved this with involved and entrepreneurial employees, who continue to develop themselves and we then together take responsibility to realize our vision.

AQ: What are the main challenges you faced while building new factories in these new markets, such as Ivory Coast, Myanmar and Egypt?

JHC: There are always nice challenges when entering new markets and building new factories. In my experience, the main challenge is often to quickly identify a good team in the new business that can lead the process in the country and really understand the customers and the market. Then, the next step is to link the local knowledge and the De Heus global teams with all that experience in nutrition, formulation, understanding raw materials and operations of feed mills. The art is to get that balance right as soon as possible and then you can succeed in any market.

AQ: De Heus is one of the four contestants in the shrimp category of the F3 Challenge – Carnivore Edition, together with Remediiate. What are the main goals achieved so far to get fish-free feeds?

JHC: There is more and more focus on sustainability and traceability in aquaculture, and also in De Heus, we are working on this and trying to continuously do better.

Through trials run at our R&D facility on nutrition, we have been able to achieve fish-free feeds for some of our omnivorous fish feed portfolios already.

As a natural next step, we are looking into the carnivorous species and we took the opportunity of the F3 challenge to start with shrimp feed.

Shrimp and carnivorous species are more sensitive to fishmeal and fish oil replacement, but we believe with this F3 challenge and some additional research we are conducting, we will achieve an equal growth performance at a competitive price point for these fishfree diets. It is very interesting and something we think can be an important part of the future of aquafeed.

AQ: Sustainability is key to many feed company’s agendas. What plans does De Heus have to lower its carbon footprint or achieve other sustainability goals?

JHC: Our mission is to contribute to the sustainable availability and accessibility of safe and healthy food worldwide. We do this with the utmost care for climate, environment and animal welfare. We encourage every business unit to proactively create more positive values for the environment and the community where we present, depending on the local situation.

Besides, we have also decided on a set of four longterm global sustainability ambitions called Global Green Goals for 2030. Reducing our carbon footprint is one of them.

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It starts with our ability to measure the GHG emissions of our feed production, not only limited to the emissions of feed processing, but also that of raw material production and relevant logistic activities. The results will suggest detailed actions we must take to reduce the footprint involving using natural resources responsibly and efficiently in our own production, advancing our customers and improving transparency and cooperation throughout the food production chain. This approach will also be applied for our other three Global Green Goals, which are the reduction of antibiotics, the sustainability of soy, and our efforts to help local farmers develop their business. We will also constantly track the general performance of the most important sustainability indicators and the progress of our Global Green Goals to make sure we achieve the goals.

AQ: De Heus, together with Fresh Studio, opened an aquaculture R&D center in Vietnam in 2017. What’s the focus of the center in terms of species and technology and what has been achived so far?

JHC: Our global Aqua R&D center in Vinh Long is something we are very proud of. It is a state-ofthe-art facility right in the middle of the Mekong Delta, so it gives us a unique opportunity to do research in the same environment as most of our warm water species customers also do. We also have the opportunity to invite customers from Vietnam to our R&D facility to let them see how we do research to support the feed they use on their farm. The focus species are warm-water species and we do research on herbivore, omnivore and carnivore species to get detailed information about their nutritional needs.

We also evaluate the digestibility of new and existing raw materials to ensure the best performance at the best cost.

AQ: What are the main challenges farmers are facing in new markets, such as Ivory Coast?

JHC: Some of the new markets have challenges in terms of the infrastructure to produce the fish or the shrimp.

Sometimes the supply of juvenile fish to the farmers is limited or of varying quality. Sometimes the new markets also have to develop the customer base if fish and shrimp are not an already existing part of the food people eat. There is an eagerness to learn and develop in most of these new markets, and it is very encouraging

to see local entrepreneurs facing the challenges and growing their businesses.

AQ: How does De Heus support farmer customers in the different countries?

JHC: In De Heus, we support our customers through three main pillars. Firstly, from a technical point of view, namely best cost nutrition, how our customers get the best performing feed at the best available price. Secondly, through technical support that is focused on services and solutions, e.g. selection of fry and post larvae, water management and support to develop new systems, but also by our on-the-farm approach we are looking at and analyzing all the local variables that influence the feed conversion. By considering all these variables, we are able to tailor our feed strategy fully to the individual circumstances of the local farmers. Thirdly, our science-based approach to feed with our R&D facilities is a key service to our farmers as well. We have customers that are interested in doing smaller R&D projects with us, and we can support them with trial design, analyses and basic reporting, to ensure they make decisions on a data and science-based foundation.

AQ: Finally, where would you like to see the aquaculture industry in the next ten years?

JHC: I am “aqua crazy”, so I may be biased a bit in how I think the future will look for the aquaculture industry, but I really believe that aquaculture done the right way can be a key contributor to the supply of healthy and sustainable protein demand from a growing global population. We have seen a lot of progress and still a lot of good work being done, but there are still areas that we can improve more e.g. from a feed point of view, the right focus on sustainable and novel raw materials, research on nutrition of fish and shrimp, and bio-security on farm level, and as part of this better disease prevention and management. We should be open and not afraid to discuss the challenges we have in the industry, and then together try to come up with better solutions. If we do that well, I think that in ten years from now, we will have aquaculture production that is at least double in terms of volume of what we see today, using fewer resources to produce 1 kg of fish or shrimp and products that are recognized for their health benefits and sustainable production methods.

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NEWS REVIEW Highlights of recent news from Aquafeed.com Sign up at Aquafeed.com for our free weekly newsletter for up-to-the-minute industry news

Skretting to build US feed mill to supply Atlantic Sapphire

Ridley unveils fish-free feed for sustainable shrimp production The company partnered with Mackay-based Australian Prawn Farms to successfully complete a commercial-scale trial of a breakthrough shrimp diet that includes no marine resources. The feed, made from plant and animal raw materials, includes microbial biomass ingredient called Novacq™.

Ridley launched the Propel series of shrimp diets which contain Novacq™, reduced protein and minimal levels of marine resources.

Skretting plans to construct a specialized state-of-theart feed plant for land-based salmon in Florida to serve Atlantic Sapphire’s US operations with market-leading feeds specialized for Bluehouse farming. Skretting intends to build and finance the feed plant, while Atlantic Sapphire will commit to source the majority of its salmon feed demand from Skretting over the contract period, which is expected to span ten years.

Aller Aqua and BioRefine test green protein made of grass In the search for new fish feed ingredients, Aller Aqua will test green protein from Danish company, BioRefine. The ingredient is an organic protein concentrate made of grass harvested from 3,000 ha of land in Denmark. It has a similar nutrient profile to soybean meal and could be a great replacement in Aller Aqua fish feed.

Aller Aqua also started labeling its feeds with their CO2 equivalent. The number is printed on labels on feeds from the Danish, German and Polish factories. The rest of the factories will add the declaration soon.

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Nine contestants race in F3 Challenge - Carnivore Edition Nine companies from across the globe have officially joined the F3 Challenge - Carnivore Edition, the aquaculture industry’s premier race to replace fishmeal and fish oil in feeds for farmraised carnivorous species. Four contestants have registered in the salmonid category, Chapul Farms, F4F Food for the Future, Jiangsu Fuhai Biotech Co., Ltd, and Star Milling Co. in partnership with The Scoular Company. In the shrimp category, four contestants registered, Empagram in partnership with Veramaris, Jiangsu Fuhai Biotech Co., Ltd, Remediiate and De Heus LLC. In the other carnivorous species category, BGreen Technologies is competing with Asian seabass feed, Jiangsu Fuhai Biotech Co., Ltd with largemouth bass feed and Dainichi Corporation with red seabream feed. The winners will be announced in the fall of 2022.

Dinnissen, Ottevanger unveil strategic partnership in process technology

Dinnissen Process Technology and Ottevanger Milling Engineers announced a strategic alliance to realize customer value, synergy and focus together. The alliance takes shape through participation in Dinnissen

by Bolster Investment Partners and Triott Group, the holding company of which Ottevanger forms a part.

The collaboration allows Dinnissen to focus more on high-end processing solutions for food, dairy, chemicals, pet food and pharma. For Ottevanger, the alliance offers the opportunity to strengthen its position in the international feed market.

ADM opens animal nutrition lab in Switzerland to expand research activities The company opened a new animal nutrition laboratory located in Rolle, Switzerland. The new lab will support the development of sciencebased feed additives to meet customer needs for petfood, aquaculture and livestock species worldwide. Sustainability, health through nutrition and production efficiency will be supported by the new lab. The team of scientists will accelerate the development of innovative products to address some of the main challenges of animal production with sustainability at the forefront.

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New feeds in the market

INVE Aquaculture unveiled a breakthrough rotifer substitution feed line. Natura pRo and ExL are revolutionary feed line and protocol substituting rotifers seamlessly. They lead towards improved survival, larvae quality and operational flexibility for marine fish hatcheries.

Skretting unveiled new starter and grower feeds for rainbow trout to help farms meet their full potential.

Nutra Sprint is a new high-performance starter feed that supports first-feeding trout fry, while Celero accelerates growth in the grow-out phase and enables farmers to produce premium quality fish with a high harvest yield.

BioMar introduced a new pellet size in the starter feed range INICIO Plus with a diameter size of 0.35 mm. They are optimized for covering the nutritional requirements of fry and giving an improved feeding experience for many fish species, including trout, salmon and marine species.

China to produce single-cell protein from carbon monoxide The Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Beijing Shoulang Biotechnology Co. developed a gas fermentation process that produces Clostridium autoethanogenum single-cell protein with carbon monoxide from steel plants with a profile close to fishmeal and far better than soy meal, paving the way for a reduction in soyimported proteins in the country. Researchers from the Feed Research Institute tested this protein in several fish species and found it suitable for fish feeds. Beijing Shoulang Biotechnology plans to produce up to 30,000 tons of protein.

Scoular to begin producing barley protein ingredient for aquafeed at new Idaho facility Scoular opened its new facility that will produce Emerge™, a first-of-its-kind concentrated barley protein.

Emerge, both traceable and non-GMO, is created through a patent-pending process that concentrates the protein naturally found in whole barley kernels, creating a nutrient-dense ingredient for use in pet food and aquafeed. The facility is expected to begin commercial production in January 2022.

BASF, trinamiX introduce mobile NIR spectroscopy solution for the feed industry BASF Animal Nutrition and trinamiX, a whollyowned subsidiary of BASF SE, introduced trinamiX’ Mobile Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy Solution to the feed industry. The new NIR solution covers a broad variety of samples, ranging from feed ingredients to finished feed to forage. It supports parameters that are crucial to feed quality and the wellbeing of animals, including moisture, protein, fat, and energy.

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WARREN G. DOMINY PHD Aquafeed specialist Warren Dominy passed away December 12, 2021, at home in Kailua, Hawai’i.

Dr. Dominy was a true visionary, who laid the foundation for much of what we know today about shrimp nutrition and aquafeed processing technology.

He was a research scientist, nutritionist, feed formulator and feed processing specialist at Oceanic Institute (OI), Hawai’i for 30 years, retiring as Director, Aquatic Feeds and Nutrition Department in 2013.

During this period, he conducted feed, feed ingredient and feed manufacturing research trials with species of shrimp, fish, abalone, sea urchin, and even swine, poultry and cattle. His focus in the last decade was on potential feed ingredients of products and co-products from agriculture, algae and yeast, and co-products from biofuels, food processing, fisheries waste and by-catch.

It was in feed processing, however, and particularly extrusion technology, that his heart lay. He was forever grateful to Dr. Keith Behnke, Kansas State University, for encouraging and supporting him in earning a PhD in Grain Science, becoming the first person with a doctorate in aquafeed processing.

His passion was to build the first pilot-scale aquatic research feed mill at OI. In 1991, the industry had enthusiastically embraced it: key equipment was generously donated, and the mill designed and ready to go. Alas, in spite of several promising starts, his dream was never realized.

Warren epitomized humility; he took little credit for his work and shared his knowledge and ideas generously and enthusiastically, always happy for others to take them up and build on them.

Aquafeed industry leaders from throughout Asia recognized Dr. Dominy in a surprise ceremony during an Aquafeed.com conference in Bangkok.

(1947 – 2021)

He was a sought-after consultant, helping equipment manufacturers hone their machinery for aquafeed production, and ingredient and aquafeed companies throughout the world through organizations such as the American Soybean Association, U.S. Wheat Associates, U.S. Agency for International Development. Since 2013, as the senior consultant for Aquafeed.com, he put his energy into helping underresourced Pacific Island communities to achieve food sufficiency. His ultimate vision was to create aquafeed entirely from sustainable marine sources. Inspired by the plight of the Marshall Islands, surrounded by ocean but with scarce land, he was working towards creating multitrophic ecosystems in the vast atolls, where inventory could be controlled: “What comes from the ocean should be fed by the ocean” became his mantra. As always, he was a little too far ahead of his time.

Warren leaves behind his wife, Suzi, four children and five grandchildren. A Celebration of Life service, which will be streamed, will be held April 30, 2022 in Hawai'i . Please contact Suzi (suzi.dominy@gmail. com) for details.

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MICRO-INGREDIENTS

Shrimp peptide concentrate boosts palatability and growth performance in fish and shrimp Waldo G. Nuez-Ortín, Marleen Dehasque, Adisseo

The continuous decrease of fishmeal (FM) in aquafeed formulations for economic and sustainability reasons implies attention to other formulative aspects, such as compensating for essential nutrients and maintaining feed palatability.

Feed palatability, or attractability, affects the growth of fish and shrimp and is considered an indicator of feed quality by farmers. Since feed palatability will influence feed intake, it will also impact the environmental and culture conditions of the farm. Moreover, farmed animals face stressful periods (i.e. transfer to ponds or cages, cold stress, poor water quality, veterinary treatments, etc.) that negatively affect feed intake.

Neutralizing these periods by stimulating feed intake is important to achieve homogeneous performance and health.

Palatability enhancers and attractants bring flexibility to the nutritionist in the use of alternative and local ingredients and standardize feed palatability regardless of the quality of other dietary ingredients. Although marine meals, such as krill and squid meal, have been traditionally used to improve feed palatability, their inclusion in aquafeeds is limited nowadays by availability, consistency, price and sustainability issues.

In contrast, the use of a palatability enhancer derived from marine or aquaculture byproducts offers a more cost-effective solution besides positively impacting the FIFO ratio. Improved palatability of aquafeeds based on locally available ingredients and with limited inclusion of imported marine ingredients is the way forward for carbon footprint reduction and sustainability.

PEPSEA by Adisseo is a peptide concentrate derived from shrimp byproducts via enzymatic hydrolysis. A controlled hydrolysis process allows the high release

of diverse bioactive peptides from native proteins, as well as a high product consistency from batch to batch.

The molecular mass distribution of PEPSEA shows that over 85% of total peptides and free amino acids fall below 1000 Da. Low molecular weight fractions are more water soluble and, therefore, more effective in stimulating the chemo-sensory mechanism of fish and shrimp and boosting palatability performance.

The use of PEPSEA in fish and shrimp feeds is approved

by EU regulations and meets the requirements of leading certification programs. PEPSEA is presented in liquid form and application can be either in the mixer or top-coating.

Boosting intake and growth performance of marine fish in the context of fishmeal reduction A study was conducted in gilthead seabream to evaluate PEPSEA in terms of feed intake and growth performance. Fish of 11.4 ± 0.5 g were randomly divided into 12 x 150 L tanks at an initial density of 30 animals per tank. A total of three isoproteic and isolipidic diets were tested which included (1) a positive control

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Results showed that total feed intake was significantly reduced by 13% in the 10% FM in relation to the 20% FM (Fig. 1A). However, the use of the shrimp peptide concentrate in the 10% FM numerically boosted feed intake by 10%. This was also reflected in weight gain. It was 21% significantly lower in the 10% FM as compared with 20% FM, while it was significantly improved by 20% in the 10% FM with the inclusion of PEP® SEA (Fig. 1B). Likewise, and in terms of FCR, the shrimp peptide concentrate significantly compensated the negative impact of FM reduction achieving an FCR value similar to that of the 20% FM (Fig. 1C).

These positive effects of PEPSEA on intake can be attributed to the chemosensory stimulation by low molecular weight peptides and amino acids.

Additionally, low molecular weight peptides are more easily absorbed and assimilated by the gastrointestinal tract, acting as growth and health promoters (Siddik et al., 2020). Indeed, the addition of the shrimp peptide concentrate to 10% FM also proved to improve hindgut villi development resulting in morphometric values closer to 20% FM. This is particularly relevant for gilthead seabream, since the hindgut is the most sensitive intestinal section to inflammation and enterocyte degeneration and thus such morphometric improvements contribute to maximizing nutrient absorption and supporting fish in coping with production conditions.

Figure 1. Feed intake (A), weight gain (B) and feed conversion rate (C) of gilthead seabream (11-65 g) fed high fishmeal (FM; 20%), low FM and low FM with the inclusion of PEPSEA. Statistical analysis by one way ANOVA and Tukey´s post hoc test (n = 4, mean ± std; p < 0.05). Different letters indicate statistical difference.

diet containing 20% FM, (2) a negative control diet containing 10% FM, and (3) a treatment diet containing 10% FM and PEPSEA. The shrimp peptide concentrate was included at a rate to supply 1% of functional soluble protein and replace the soluble protein in 10% fishmeal. Adjustments of other major ingredients and supplements such as soy protein concentrate, wheat meal, methionine and monocalcium phosphate, were made to balance nutrient levels across experimental feeds. Each tank received the ration according to its biomass and a fixed percentage was applied to all the tanks. The duration of the feeding trial was 84 days.

Improving cost-efficiency, intake and growth performance of shrimp feeds A study was conducted in whiteleg shrimp to evaluate the benefits of PEPSEA in feed intake and performance.

Whiteleg shrimp of 1.2 ± 0.15 g were randomly divided into 15 outdoor tanks of 1.5m3 at an initial density of 153 shrimp per tank. In order to mimic production conditions, the trial was conducted in green water subjected to natural fluctuations in temperature and light. Three types of experimental feeds were formulated to be isoproteic and isolipidic and included (1) a positive control containing 10% salmon meal, (2) a negative control containing 5% salmon meal, and (3) a treatment diet containing 5% salmon meal and PEPSEA. The shrimp peptide concentrate was included at a rate to supply 0.5% of functional soluble protein, replacing the functional protein of 5% salmon meal. Feeds were also balanced for protein, amino acids and energy using

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(Fig. 2B, 2C). Likewise, the inclusion of the shrimp peptide concentrate numerically compensated weekly gain and FCR by 6% and 9%, respectively. Given the cost efficiency of PEPSEA inclusion in the present feed formulations, these results prove the potential of the low molecular weight fractions to stimulate the feeding behavior of shrimp and optimize commercial feed formulas.

It must be added that the trial was conducted during the dry season, implying high salinity concentrations and low temperatures (i.e. average of 35 g/L and 25°C) of the rearing water. Such conditions increase the energy demands of shrimp and explain the weight gains below 1 g per week and the FCR above 2. At the same time, these results reflect better the potential of the shrimp peptide concentrate in boosting feed intake and performance under natural production conditions.

Figure 2. Feed intake (A), weekly weight gain (B) and feed conversion rate (C) of whiteleg shrimp (1-10 g) fed high salmon meal (10%), low salmon meal (5%) and low salmon meal (5%) with the inclusion of PEPSEA. Statistical analysis by one way ANOVA (n = 5, mean ± std; p < 0.05). No significant differences were found.

Conclusions Feed palatability, or attractability, is a key indicator of feed quality. PEPSEA is a concentrated source of bio-active shrimp peptides that brings flexibility to the nutritionist to reduce dependence on marine ingredients while maintaining palatability, intake and performance of fish and shrimp feeds. Unlike other palatability enhancers or attractants of marine origin, PEPSEA is allowed by leading certification programs and ensures availability, consistency and cost-efficiency. The Service Platform on Aquaculture Nutrition at Adisseo provides nutritional advice to optimize the application of PEPSEA in feed formulations for fish and shrimp.

More information:

soy protein concentrate, cassava starch, and crystalline amino acids. Feed water stability was above 80% for all feeds. Mean shrimp body weight in each tank was determined on a weekly basis, and feed rations were adjusted on a daily basis. The duration of the feeding trial was 69 days.

Results showed that apparent feed intake was numerically reduced by 4% with the reduction of salmon meal from 10% to 5%, but compensated by the inclusion of PEPSEA (Fig. 2A). Salmon meal reduction had a numerically negative impact on the weekly gain weight and FCR of 10% and 6%, respectively

Waldo G. Nuez-Ortín Lead Scientist Aquaculture Adisseo E: waldo.nuezortin@adisseo.com

Marleen Dehasque Global Product Manager Aqua Nutrition Adisseo

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Phenolic antioxidants: The science of food chemistry Margarita Altable, Oxiris Chemicals

The suspension of ethoxyquin as an antioxidant by the European Food Safety Authority has highlighted the need of having more safe alternatives to protect food against oxidation processes. For example, there are numerous substances of natural origin with a demonstrated antioxidant performance that are well accepted by consumers who perceive them as healthy substances (Food Chemistry 71, 2000, 229).

On the other hand, the combination of synergistic antioxidants, both natural and synthetics, becomes one of OXIRIS objectives. Such combinations are giving us very good results in food preservation, and in some cases allow us to reduce the antioxidant doses. These mixtures can slow down the oxidation process more effectively than the individual components separately.

Antioxidant activity The food oxidation processes cause the alteration of its components (lipids, proteins, carbohydrates) and are responsible for some adverse effects on the food itself and on the health of the organisms that ingest them.

This is the case of rancidity, one of the most obvious consequences of lipid oxidation and, to a large degree, responsible for bad odor and taste developed in food over time.

The oxidative processes can be accelerated or slowed down under certain physicochemical conditions. For example, some pigments such as astaxanthin, also undergo oxidative degradation (Fig. 1) that leads to reduced bioavailability, discoloration and loss of freshness (Global Perspectives on Astaxanthin: From Industrial Production to Food; Ed AP).

In the specific case of lipid degradation, it is also initiated by the action of external agents, such as free radicals, radiation, high temperatures or some metallic ions. These agents contribute to destabilizing and altering the fatty acids from which oils and fats are formed.

Figure 1. Oxidative degradation factors of astaxanthin.

As a result of this interaction, free radicals are formed which react with molecular oxygen, generating new free radicals and the so-called primary oxidation compounds (hydroperoxides and peroxides). These substances are unstable and decompose, releasing secondary oxidation compounds associated with the unpleasant smell (aldehydes, ketones, alcohols). The oxidative degradation of fish products is especially intense due to the high content of unsaturated fatty acids that are more sensitive to oxidation.

Because the lipid oxidative process is autocatalytic, when it starts it is not possible to stop it or repair its effects. Although it is not possible to avoid the oxidation completely, it is possible to slow it down by deactivating the oxidizing agents present in the medium.

This is the case of the primary antioxidants such as BHT, BHA, propyl gallate, carnosic acid and tocopherol.

All of them are polyphenols and capable of deactivating free radicals by giving them a hydrogen atom. As a consequence, radicals are transformed into stable substances and the antioxidant into a less reactive radical that will not promote the oxidative process (Fig. 2).

Other antioxidants present different forms to protect against oxidation such as the chelators which trap metallic ions which may be present in some medium.

As a result, the catalysis of the degradation processes of hydroperoxides is prevented and, therefore, the rancidity.

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

17

Figure 2. Representation of the inactivating process of a free radical with BHT.

Natural extracts The botanical extracts are substances obtained from plants (roots, leaves, stems) that contain secondary metabolites with beneficial bioactive properties for organisms. Some of them can be included in the diet as a nutritional additive and/or act on the food as a technological additive.

The tocopherol extract is one of the antioxidants used by Oxiris in the NATUROL product line as it is one of the most important components in nutrition, both for its preservative capacity and its action as Vitamin E in organisms. There are four types of tocopherols in botanical resources, the so-called alpha, beta, delta, and gamma. The delta and gamma isomers (Fig. 3) have the highest antioxidant performance, and for this reason, it is advantageous to use extracts enriched in these components (Food Antioxidants CRC).

The rosemary extract is another natural product, and is present in NATUROL 25RE, which is of great interest to nutritionists due to its antioxidant properties. It contains active ingredients such as carnosic acid, carnosol and rosmanol among others (Cuvelier, Berset & Richard,

1996). The main ingredient in this extract is carnosic acid, a well-known primary antioxidant that inactivates free radicals present in the medium, and due to its high cost, it is normally used in combination with other antioxidants such as tocopherol.

Finally, it is worth highlighting gallic acid, a polyphenol from the family of hydrolyzable tannins, which is found in many foods and has a remarkable antioxidant capacity. Gallic acid is also the precursor of other important preservatives such as propyl gallate used in IONOL Pet Food.

The botanical extracts are excellent allies, for the food sector challenges. To get the most out of these substances it is important to know their origin, composition, antioxidant performance and their stability in different conditions as well as their safety in organisms.

Synergistic effect It is expected that when ingredient mixtures are added to food, the effects of the ingredients are the sum of the parts. However, sometimes non-additive effects can be observed, such as a synergistic effect, by which the activity of at least one of the ingredients is enhanced, or an antagonistic effect, which results in a worse performance of at least one of the components.

These effects have a direct impact on the efficiency of antioxidants.

For instance, the extracts E1 and E4 (Fig. 4) present the same content of carnosic acid, but the performance measured by Rancimat is completely different, possibly due to the effect of other components.

In the specific case of antioxidants, the synergy that is detected in certain combinations, such as BHT-BHA, tocopherol-ascorbic acid, tocopherol-rosemary extract or BHT-citric acid, is a particularity of great interest in the preparation of formulas.

Figure 3. Molecular structure of natural primary phenolic antioxidants: tocopherol, carnosic acid gallic acid.

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

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Figure 4. Comparative study of the antioxidant activity (Rancimat) of different rosemary extracts.

The mechanism by which this synergistic effect occurs is different in each mix and is not always easy to determine and quantify. One of the most common is the regeneration of the primary antioxidant by the synergist and the consequent extension of its life span.

For example, carnosic acid, one of the active components of rosemary extract, regenerates the tocopherol used during the process by giving it a hydrogen atom (Fig. 5), allowing tocopherol to be available to inactivate more radicals (Advances in Food and Nutrition Research, 42, Ed AP).

A similar regeneration process appears to occur between BHT and BHA, the main ingredients of the IONOL 175 product line. In this case, the BHT, on

supplying a hydrogen atom to the phenoxy radical of BHA, allows the life span of the BHA to be extended.

When BHT/BHA mixtures of different proportions are evaluated, the synergistic effect can be detected because the performance of these mixtures is greater than the sum of the parts of each component. For example, the BHT (11%)/BHA (11%) mixture presents a higher performance as an antioxidant than the sum of their contributions obtained separately (Fig. 6).

These experimental results, along with the costs and the client's needs, should be considered to define the composition of the best mixture.

The incorporation of other synergists, such as citric acid, a well-known chelating agent, improves the

Figure 5. Representation of the regeneration process of tocopherol with carnosic acid.

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

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Figure 6. Comparison of the antioxidant activity of BHT/BHA mixtures.

performance of the primary antioxidant without increasing the dose is another example of how to combine antioxidants.

Conclusions Therefore, a deep knowledge of the mechanism of action of antioxidants allows to Oxiris for, firstly, the selection of the most suitable antioxidants; secondly, the combinations which best meet the needs of the customer in the most efficient way taking advantage of their synergy; and finally, the reduction

of adverse health effects by incorporating natural ingredients and improving the performances by adding synergistic substances.

More information: Margarita Altable NBD Technician Oxiris Chemicals E: margarita.altable@oxirischemicals.com

Protecting your dreams EXPERTS IN ANTIOXIDANTS IONOL

BHT, BHA, PROPYL GALLATE, CITRIC ACID

NATUROL

TOCOPHEROL, ROSEMARY EXTRACT, GALLIC ACID

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

MICRO-INGREDIENTS

Effective additive use for Pacific white shrimp Jacoba Bromfield, Bioproton The aquafeed sector can hardly keep up with the increased demand for fish and crustaceans in the coming years. Nutrition is a strong tool to increase efficiency. Trials in Pacific white shrimp showed what a mix of probiotics and multienzymes can do for production and health parameters.

Global aquaculture is an industry of increasing importance due to the increasing demand for seafoodbased products. The world’s appetite for fish and fish products is growing every year. According to the latest FAO report on the state of world fisheries and aquaculture (2020), global fish consumption increased by 122% between 1990 and 2018. This increased demand led to a growth in global aquaculture production by a whopping 527% in the same period.

A range of factors contributes to this increase, including the health benefits associated with seafood consumption such as reducing the risk of heart disease, as well as the high feed efficiency of fish, making it a profitable business (Tacon et al., 2011). But there is a significant shortfall in supply expected by 2030 globally (Table 1). Combined with the changing diets (feed ingredients), high feed prices and environmental regulations among others, aquaculture producers need to further optimize sustainable working methods while increasing the production efficiency of farmed

fish and crustaceans. The use of nutrition and feed additives are strong and effective tools to help overcome these challenges.

The rise of feed additives The introduction of feed additives into the aquaculture industry has substantially increased fish health and has been considered a sustainable practice to decrease mortality and increase production (Caipang & Lazado, 2015). It is forecasted that the aquafeed additives market will reach a revenue of approximately US$2.2 billion by the end of 2029. Growth is seen in different types of feed additives, but probiotics and enzymes, in particular, have become very popular in aquaculture systems, as they have a strong effect on (gut) health and feed efficiency.

Probiotic products may contain one or more selected microbial strains and have different modes of action in aqua species. First, like with many non-aquatic species, they are able to competitively exclude

Table 1. The fish supply and demand projection for 2030 (in million metric tons). Source: FAO (2013).

Estimated supply 2030

Estimated demand 2030

Supply-demand gap 2030

Africa

11.7

18.7

-7.0

Asia

156.5

186.3

-29.8

Europe

18.6

23.4

-4.8

Latin America + Caribbean

16.2

18.3

-2.1

Northern America

6.2

12.9

-6.6

Oceania

1.5

1.8

-0.3

210.7

261.2

-50.6

World

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

21

pathogens and interrupt the adhesion of pathogens to the gut wall of the host. Second, they are able to alter the digestive physiology, including the structural integrity of villi, leading to an increase in nutrient absorption (Madigan-Stretton et al., 2020). Third, probiotic species, particularly Bacillus spp., are able to improve water quality and decrease algal blooms by modulating the ammonia and nitrogen content, thus decreasing overall fish mortality (Cha et al., 2013; Maillard et al., 2005).

In addition to probiotics, enzymes have also proven effective in improving fish production and health by increasing nutrient bioavailability and decreasing antinutritive factors (ANFs) (Amer, 2017).

Aquaculture species often lack sufficient endogenous enzymes to effectively digest the complex diets that are fed to them in an industrial farming setting, hence the application of exogenous enzymes is highly beneficial, especially with respect to improving feed conversion ratio. At the same time, the use of raw materials in fish and crustaceans diets has changed over the years. Enzymes break down carbohydrates in grains or they increase the availability of vegetable phosphorus among others.

Studies in Pacific white shrimp Feed additives are often supplied in combination with each other (direct or via premix). However, limited studies have investigated the effects of combination and synergistic effects of using multispecies probiotics and multienzymes in shrimp diets and water. A trial was done by animal nutrition company Bioproton in cooperation with Public Research Institute in Brazil. The study aimed to improve the production and health of Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) and water quality through the use of a

probiotic (Natupro, hereafter called ‘the probiotic’) and a multienzyme supplement (Natuzyme, hereafter called ‘the multienzyme’). The probiotic used contains a collection of multiple Bacillus species that assist in maintaining gut microbiota, resulting in improved gut health and animal performance. Having multiple strains is powerful, as it ensures synergistic working of bacteria, enabling them to outcompete evolving pathogens. The multienzyme used synergistically improves the digestion and absorption of nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Because the enzymes have a wide pH activity range and are heat tolerant they are effective throughout the digestive tract and are stable through feed pelleting.

Four diets tested The experiment had a duration of six weeks and the shrimp weighed 3.21 ± 0.047 g. The diets were formulated according to the NRC nutrient requirements of fish and shrimp, with the probiotic and multienzyme added to the feed.

The trial included four treatments: • T1: Control treatment • T2: 500 g probiotic/ton • T3: 750 g probiotic/ton • T4: 500 g probiotic + 350 g multienzyme/ton The treatments were performed in quadruplicates, resulting in 16 experimental units. Shrimp were fed four times per day (8:00, 12:00, 14:00 e 17:00) and the consumption was verified after 90 minutes to regulate the feed intake. During the experiment, the dissolved oxygen and temperature were monitored twice a day. The ammonia, nitrate, pH, alkalinity and salinity were measured once a week. Weekly, all shrimps were weighted to estimate the weekly weight gain. At the end of the experiment, the shrimp

Table 2. Shrimp performance of different dietary treatments. Data presented as mean ± standard deviation.

Control (T1)

T2

T3

Mean final weight (g)

12.19 ± 0.30

11.97 ± 0.16

12.30 ± 0.27

12.34 ± 0.40

Specific growth rate (g/week)

1.50 ± 6.08

1.46 ± 6.51

1.51 ± 0.50

1.52 ± 0.41

Final biomass (g)

216.2 ± 4.17

233.4 ± 13.06

230.5 ± 10.04

224.82 ± 16.87

88.75 ± 3

97.50 ± 5

93.75 ± 5

92.5 ± 6

1.57 ± 0.05

1.50 ± 0.08

1.47 ± 0.07

1.51 ± 0.08

Survival (%) Feed conversion ratio

T4

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performance was evaluated (survival, specific growth rate, mean final weight, final biomass and feed conversion rate). Also, fifteen shrimps per tank were sampled for immunological analyses (total haemocytes count, phenoloxidase activity and serum protein concentration) and midgut microbiology.

Improvements in performance Looking at shrimp performance, the trials showed that the probiotic diet at the recommended dosage of 500 g probiotic/ton performed better than the control diet (Table 2). At this recommended inclusion rate, the probiotic diet improved feed conversion ratio (FCR), survival rate and led to higher final biomass.

The combination of the probiotic and the multienzyme decreased the quantity of Vibrio spp. bacteria, while maintaining a high microbial diversity. The combination of the multienzyme and probiotic also provided the highest final body weight and specific growth rate, while maintaining a lower FCR, compared to the control. This shows the synergistic effects of probiotics and digestive enzymes on improving digestion and gut health.

Conclusion The results from this trial in Pacific white shrimp show the benefits of supplementing the diet with a probiotic and multienzyme. The positive effects on FCR, mean final weight, mean final biomass and survival rate have a direct effect on profitability. On top of that, shrimp have better gut health, which makes them more resilient to challenging conditions, as shown in a decrease in Vibrio spp. bacteria. The benefits of the multienzyme tested here have been also confirmed in other aqua species such as Caspian salmon (improved growth and feed efficiency) and Mozambique tilapia (improved growth and better protein digestibility).

References are available on request.

More information: Jacoba Bromfield Animal Nutritionist Bioproton E: jacoba.bromfield@bioproton.com

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Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

CHINA

MICRO-INGREDIENTS

Maximizing profits in fish feeds João Fernando Albers Koch, Biorigin

Under intensive production, fish are frequently exposed to stressors, such as handling, transport and high stocking rates, which negatively affect their live performance and immune response, making them less resistant to pathogens. Due to food safety concerns, the prophylactic use of antibiotics in intensive fish farming is widely criticized and banned in many countries. However, science has developed possible alternatives, such as good management practices and immunostimulants.

In aquaculture, immunostimulants are widely used due to their ease of application, in particular β-glucans and nucleotides. Β-glucans are known as “biological response modifiers” as they activate the immune system to recognize non-self particles (GANNAM, 2015). They are found in yeast and fungal cells and consist of glucose molecules linked by β (1-3) and β (1-6) bonds (Cook et al., 2003). These compounds modulate the immune response by stimulating the production of oxidative radicals by circulating neutrophils and superoxide anion by activated macrophages (Pilarski et al., 2017).

Nucleotides are low molecular weight intracellular compounds that play critical roles in several biochemical processes (Gil, 2002) and essential physiological functions. They encode genetic information, mediate

energy metabolism and cell signaling, and are components of coenzymes, allosteric effectors and cell agonists (Li & Gatlin, 2015). Nucleotides have been shown to influence the immune responses of fish, increasing their disease resistance and osmoregulatory capacity, and the effectiveness of vaccination programs (Burrels et al., 2001; Leonardi et al., 2003; Low et al., 2003).

Nile tilapia trial An experiment was conducted at the Aquaculture and Aquatic Ecology Laboratory of the Federal University of Vales do Jequitinhonha and Mucuri (Campus JK), Brazil, in partnership with José do Rosário Vellano University.

Researchers fed Nile tilapia juveniles a nucleotide source (Biotide extra, min. 15% of RNA), or a combination with a beta-glucan source (MacroGard, min. 60% purified beta-glucans) to evaluate their influence on live performance, survival rate and resistance against high salinity and hypoxia challenges.

The following treatments were evaluated: Control diet (CD – non-supplemented commercial diet); Biotide extra diet (BD – control diet supplemented with Biotide Extra at 2 g kg-1); MacroGard + Biotide extra diet (MBD – control diet supplemented with MacroGard at 0.75 g kg-1 + Biotide Extra at 2 g kg-1). MacroGard is a product

Table 1. Average live performance parameter values of Nile tilapia juveniles fed the experimental diets for 60 days.

Parameters

CD

BD

MBD

Initial body weight (g)

5.30

5.21

5.3

0.83

Final body weight (g)

14.70b

18.44a

20.33a

<0.01

Weight gain (g)

9.19b

12.94a

14.82a

<0.01

Daily weight gain (g/d)

0.15b

0.21a

0.24a

<0.01

Biomass (g)

78.18c

103.58b

132.81a

<0.01

Feed conversion ratio (g/g)

5.12ab

5.12ab

3.88b

0.02

Specific growth rate (%)

15.33

21.56

24.71

<0.01

b

a

a

P-value

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

24

Figure 1. Survival rates at the end of the feeding period and after exposure to high salinity and hypoxia challenge.

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

25

that contains 60% of purified beta 1,3-1,6 glucans extracted from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Biotide Extra contains 15% of RNA – source of nucleotides extracted also from S. cerevisiae.

Nile tilapia juveniles (200 fish) derived from the same stock, with 5.16 ± 1.73 g initial body weight, were distributed in 20 tanks (100 L), with constant aeration and controlled photoperiod, at 1.0 fish L-1 stocking rate.

Fish were fed for 60 days and then challenged with two stressors: high salinity and hypoxia. Live performance results are shown in Table 1.

Survival rates at the end of the feeding period (60 days) and after exposure to high salinity and hypoxia challenge are shown in Figure 1.

Discussion The observed improvement of live performance parameters when fish were fed B-glucans and nucleotides is consistent with literature reports (Aramli et al., 2015; Ringo et al., 2011). These results may be attributed to the prebiotic action of the purified betaglucan source and the role of the nucleotide source in cell proliferation in the gut. These compounds aid in maintaining the integrity of the intestinal barrier against bacteria and toxins and increase villus length, enhancing nutrient absorption by the fish, consequently improving their live performance.

Even before being submitted to the environmental challenges (high salinity and hypoxia), the tilapia juveniles fed the diets supplemented with Biotide extra, or the combination with MacroGard, showed an 86.5% average survival rate, which was 38.5% higher compared with those fed the non-supplemented control 15.00 [381]

diet (53.1%; Fig. 1). Beta-glucans and nucleotides, as explained above, directly influence the defense system of fish, stimulating the immune system and modulating the gut native microbiota (Lovatelli & Chen, 2009).

The obtained results showed that the inclusion of the evaluated immunostimulants in the diet of Nile tilapia juveniles strengthened their resistance to stress (Fig. 1). In addition, they improved fish live performance and survival rates, which may reduce possible economic losses of rearing operations (Chagas, 2013).

Conclusions This study demonstrated that the feed additive Biotide extra, individually or in combination, may be a valuable tool for intensive fish production. In addition to improving live performance, those additives supported higher survival rates after fish were submitted to hypoxia and high salinity challenges. These challenges were applied in the present study because they simulated typical situations experienced in fish farms. Learn more about Biotide Extra and MacroGard and see how these products can bring higher returns on your investment.

References available on request.

More information: João Fernando Albers Koch Aquaculture Technical Manager - Aquaculture Biorigin E: joao.koch@biorigin.net MAX.

393.31 [9990] 391.31 [9939]

MIN.

Ă12.00 [305]

31.19 [792]

MIN.

29.19 [741]

F085 SHIMPO

36.91 [937]

MAX.

67.28 [1709] 39.00 [991] 101.44 [2577]

30.38 [772]

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64.83 [1647]

108.59 [2759] DCC Inlet

End of Head

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15.00 [381]

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199.38 [5064]

18.00 [457]

1.00 NPT

P.O. Box 8 • 100 Airport Road • Sabetha, KS 66534, USA Phone: 785-284-2153 • Fax: 785-284-3143

12.56 [319]

51

06

0

15.88 [404]

24.59 [625]

03 54

256T

108.28 [2750]

2.00 NPT [STEAM]

12/13/18 12:00 PM

80 NORGREN

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88.00 [2236]

160

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48.00 [1219]

57.69 [1465]

2

ET-296i.indd 1

1.00 NPT [STEAM]

2.00 NPT [WATER] 3/4 NPT

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53.25 [1353]

66.50 [1689]

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022 102.13 [2594] 111.12 [2822] 195.72 [4971]

52.19 [1325]

COLUMN

Aquaculture production in 2019 Albert G. Tacon, Ph.D. Dr. Albert Tacon is a Technical Editor at Aquafeed.com and an independent aquaculture feed consultant. E: agjtacon@aquahana.com

Updated FAO aquaculture data for 2019 from FAO Aquaculture, Capture and Global production databases.

Figure 1. Total global aquaculture and capture fisheries production.

Figure 2. Total global aquaculture production in 2019. Values given in million metric tonnes and US $ billion (FAO, 2021).

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

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Figure 3. Aquaculture production by region in 2019. Values given in million metric tonnes and US $ billion (FAO, 2021).

Figure 4. Aquaculture production by country in 2019. Values given in million metric tonnes and US $ billion (FAO, 2021).

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

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Figure 5. Fish aquaculture production by major species groups in 2019. Values given in million metric tonnes and US $ billion (FAO, 2021).

Figure 6. Crustacean aquaculture production by major group in 2019. Values given in million metric tonnes and US $ billion (FAO, 2021).

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS

The inclusion of SCPs in feed does not affect its attractability to shrimp Matt Longshaw, Jarin Sawanboonchun, Calysta, Wutiporn Phromkunthong, Nutt Nuntapong, Baranee Bamrung, Prince of Songkla University

The production of shrimp under culture conditions has seen major developments and improvements over the past few decades with a strong focus on the whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) which is now the most widely cultivated shrimp species. Improvements in cultivation methods, disease diagnostics and management, as well as in seed availability, have been matched with improvements in nutrition and feed quality. Furthermore, the feed industry has strived to reduce its environmental impact by producing balanced feeds with sustainable ingredients and minimal waste.

Calysseo SCPs One approach of the aquaculture industry more widely has been to look for alternative protein sources to replace fishmeal in whole or in part due to perceived concerns over sustainability and fluctuating costs.

This has led to the testing of various protein sources including, but not limited to, various plant and animal protein sources as well as proteins from single cells, such as algae and bacteria (known collectively as singlecell proteins or SCPs).

At the same time, ingredient suppliers such as Calysta have continued to move towards commercial production. FeedKind® protein is a single cell protein fermented from methane and oxygen. With a manufacturing process that uses no agricultural land and little water as compared to traditional protein production, FeedKind stands to accelerate trends in sustainability across the aquaculture industry. Calysseo, a joint venture between Calysta and Adisseo, is on track to commission the first commercial FeedKind production facility later this year in Chongqing, China.

Figure 1. L. vannamei shrimp used to test the attractability of FeedKind® in diets.

Figure 2. Schematic drawing of testing chamber showing acclimation, holding and feeding sections of the maze.

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

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Figure 3. Photograph of staff monitoring shrimp fed diets containing different levels of FeedKind®.

In brief, it is produced at a commercial scale using a loop fermenter, dried using a combination of centrifugation and high temperatures and sold as a feed ingredient under the tradename FeedKind. Closedloop manufacturing can begin to bring the level of consistency and quality to ingredient supply that feed mills have become accustomed to. Primarily composed of the naturally occurring Methylococcus capsulatus, it contains all the essential and non-essential amino acids required by animal hosts.

SCPs attractability Studies conducted by Calysta have shown that the protein is readily incorporated into feeds with no loss of pellet integrity, is highly digestible, has a high protein content (>70%), and has positive impacts on growth and feed conversion ratios. In addition, it has a positive influence on immune responses in fish and crustaceans and has recently been shown to improve survival outcomes of whiteleg shrimp when exposed to Vibrio parahaemolyticus, the causative agent for

acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), in a disease challenge.

Although our data has shown that the inclusion of FeedKind is not detrimental to feed intake, there have been suggestions that some SCPs may be unpalatable at high levels or may lack certain components, normally present in fishmeal, that improve attractability of feeds to farmed animals and thus potentially reduce feed intake. To address these concerns, Calysta commissioned a study at the Prince of Songkla University in Thailand to test the effect of replacing fishmeal with FeedKind® on diet attractability in whiteleg shrimp.

Materials and methods Four test diets, each containing around 38% crude protein, and a commercial feed (Gold Advance 852) were tested. The test diets each contained soybean meal, corn protein concentrate and poultry meal as protein sources and either 15% fishmeal and 0% FeedKind (diet 1), 10% fishmeal and 5% FeedKind

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

31

not have an impact on the palatability or attractability of feeds to shrimp.

Figure 4. Photograph of section of testing maze containing feed and shrimp.

(diet 2), 5% fishmeal and 10% FeedKind (diet 3) or 0% fishmeal and 15% FeedKind (diet 4). Pelleted feeds were produced in-house that contained standard ingredients including binding agents and vitamin and mineral premixes to produce balanced diets. Shrimp, weighing on average 0.5 g (Fig. 1), were acclimated for a week in brackish water and fed the standard diet three times daily. On the day of the trial, 20 shrimps per group were randomly allocated to a rectangular maze system (Fig. 2, 3) and held in the acclimation section for 30 minutes.

After this time, 2 g of feed were placed in the feed section of the maze system and shrimp were held in the acclimation section for an additional 10 minutes. Each feed was tested separately and no mixing of water or shrimps between each treatment was allowed. After acclimation and addition of feed, the shutters were lifted, and shrimp were allowed to access the feed part of the maze (Fig. 4). The number of times shrimp interacted with the food was noted over 15 minutes.

Results The average number of hits over the 15 minutes on diet 1 (15% fishmeal and 0% FeedKind) was 10.00 ± 2.87, while in diets 2, 3, 4 and the commercial diet, the number of hits were 15.30 ± 2.91, 18.33 ± 2.35, 16.60 ± 1.26 and 18.80 ± 2.82 respectively. The difference between the number of hits on the feed for the test diet containing no FeedKind was statistically significantly different from the commercial feed and those diets containing FeedKind. In addition, the attractability of feeds containing 10% FeedKind® was equivalent to the commercial diet, demonstrating that FeedKind® does

Conclusions The study supports the previous work conducted by Calysta that replacing fishmeal as a protein source in shrimp feeds is feasible and that shrimp readily switch to eating diets containing FeedKind with no loss of appetite. The combination of a protein source with sustainable credentials, that is palatable and has demonstrable health and growth benefits, makes FeedKind® a suitable replacement for protein in aquaculture feeds and when production begins later this year can be considered mainstream rather than “alternative”.

References available on request.

More information: Dr. Matt Longshaw Senior Scientist Calysta E: mlongshaw@calysta.com

Dr. Wutiporn Phromkunthong Associate Professor Prince of Songkla University E: wutipornp@yahoo.com

Dr Nutt Nuntapong Researcher Prince of Songkla University

Baranee Bamrung Research Assistant Prince of Songkla University

Dr Jarin Sawanboonchun Technical Director Calysta E: jarin@calysta.com

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS

Waste-to-protein for greener future Xiaoyan Huang, Jianhua Song, iCell Sustainable Nutrition Co. Ltd.

With the development of the feed industry and the continuous increase in feed production, there is a rising gap between the supply and demand of feed proteins.

In 2018, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that the aquaculture output will reach 201 million tons by 2030 and the protein required for fish farming will increase by 10% annually, while the production of fishmeal, the most important protein ingredient, will remain at 5 million tons per year (International Fishmeal and Fish Oil Association).

Microbial protein Microbial protein is becoming a more and more popular option for its application in aquaculture and agricultural production as a potential sustainable feed ingredient used in aquaculture, livestock and poultry farming.

The main sources of microbial protein are bacteria, yeast and fungi, as well as microalgae. Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) studied microbial protein production with Methylotrophs, Methylococcus and a small number of Allobacteria utilizing natural gas as energy and carbon source for the fermentation.

The Feed Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences recently announced a major breakthrough in the field of one-carbon biosynthesis. It becomes the world's first to achieve synthesis from carbon monoxide to protein and has developed a 10,000-ton industrial capacity where the industrial exhaust gas, mainly comprising of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and the ammonia water can be used as raw materials to produce ethanol Clostridium protein.

Another new technology solution is via the utilization of carbon and nitrogen-rich process water from food manufacturers. Through a fermentation technology, microbial strains produce high value-added functional feed protein ingredients and through technological processes such as autolysis, hydrolysis, microwave, among others, they can increase nutritious value and be used as a feed ingredient for aquaculture, livestock and poultry.

This new technology utilizes the low valueadded organic process water generated by food manufacturers, such as breweries, beverage plants, sugar plants, LB-RAS systems, etc. (Fig. 1, 2) to produce

Figure 1. Food plant process flow chart.

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Figure 2. LB-RAS flow process chart.

special microbial strains with patented technologies for “digestion of organic matters in the process water” via aerobic fermentation process. The process grows a large amount of high-quality microbial proteins for further yielding premium proteins (iCell SCP) through a series of production processes, thus providing a source of premium feed protein ingredients for animal feed.

The conversion of microbial protein into animal protein creates an effective circulation between mass and energy in the whole food industry to achieve zero pollution and zero emissions. It also provides economic, environmental and social benefits.

iCell SCP trial results iCell SCP is rich in nutrients required for animal growth, such as protein, carbohydrates, fat, nucleotides, minerals and vitamins. Since its initial research and development more than ten years ago, iCell SCP experimental studies showed it can be used as a protein ingredient in the farming of livestock, poultry and aquaculture.

In the past two years, we have conducted field trials to test iCell SCP effect on the growth performance of aquaculture species, such as sturgeon, snakehead, tilapia and shrimp. iCell SCP groups showed an increased weight gain rate, specific growth rate (SGR) and survival rate under test conditions of either direct inclusion of iCell SCP or inclusion for partial replacement of fishmeal.

Figure 3. Effect of different additions of iCell SCP on growth performance of juvenile sturgeon (initial weight about 19.15 g).

Figure 4. Effect of replacing fishmeal with iCell SCP on specific growth rate of Litopenaeus vannamei.

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Figure 5. Effect of iCell SCP on the growth performance of tilapia.

A trial to assess the effect of dietary supplementation with different inclusion levels of iCell SCP on the growth performance of juvenile sturgeon showed that, compared with the control group, the 2.5% iCell SCP group had an increase in 60-day end weight and SGR by approx. 3.2% and 2.7%, respectively; the 5% iCell SCP group had an increase in 60-day end weight and SGR by approx. 3.4% and 3.2%, respectively (Fig. 3).

Fishmeal replacement trials were carried out on Litopenaeus vannamei. With an initial average body weight of 9-10 g and after 8 weeks of feeding, results showed that iCell SCP improved the growth performance of shrimp when added for replacement of about 25% and 50% fishmeal, while there was no significant difference in growth performance when iCell SCP was added for full replacement of fishmeal (Fig. 4).

A recent trial in tilapia conducted at Shanghai Ocean University assessed iCell SCP’s effect on digestibility (quantitative feeding with the same amount of protein).

Results showed an equivalent growth performance of SCP to that of fishmeal and it was superior to the control, rapeseed meal and soybean meal groups (Fig. 5). The growth data showed that iCell SCP had better digestibility on tilapia and was superior to the plant protein group and non-SCP treatment groups, delivering a similar result to that of the fishmeal group.

Conclusions The above test indicates that iCell SCP has a positive effect on improving the growth performance of aquaculture species and can be used as an alternative protein ingredient while the action mechanism is still under further study. iCell SCP not only fills the global supply gap of highquality proteins but also contributes to sustainable development recycling nutrients and water with multiple merits in carbon emission reduction and environmental improvement and protection.

More information: Xiaoyan Huang Director of Products and Nutrition iCell Sustainable Nutrition Co. Ltd. E: info@icellsustainable.com

Jianhua Song VP iCell Sustainable Nutrition Co. Ltd. E: songjianhua@icellsustainable.com

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS

Improving aquaculture productivity by meeting dietary omega-3 and omega-6 requirements of Atlantic salmon Ian Carr, Veramaris®

Veramaris® recently published their Optimum Omega Nutrition™ White Paper, a science-based paper that provides feed guidelines to help salmon farmers, together with their feed suppliers, re-set feed specifications for long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids with the objective of improving the performance and profitability of their fish farming operations.

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) are essential fatty acids (EFA) that play a critical role in ensuring optimum fish health, welfare, performance and product quality in Atlantic salmon aquaculture. The omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA, are in particularly short supply with annual production from marine fisheries being extremely limited and unlikely to show any marked increase over time.

EPA and DHA play a key role in the physiological development of fish, as well as in anti-inflammatory response, wound healing and disease resistance.

Therefore, specific levels for each of these EFAs should be included in feed formulations, as is already usual practice for nutrients like vitamins and amino acids.

Over the past 15 years, EPA & DHA omega-3 levels in salmon feed have been declining. However, recently leading producers of Atlantic salmon in Norway have been increasing dietary levels of EPA & DHA omega-3, seizing the opportunity to restore their levels in feed to those when salmon diets were comprised of fishmeal and fish oil as the main sources of protein and fat. In other parts of the world, such as The Faroe Islands, farmers have long recognized the importance

of EPA & DHA omega-3 in supporting the biological performance of salmon and its potential to drive differentiation in the market.

Alternatives to fish oil exist such as vegetable oils, however, these oils are very different to fish oils as they are typically deficient in EPA & DHA omega-3, but high in omega-6 which when oversupplied can negatively impact fish health, welfare, product quality and productivity. Additionally, low dietary levels of EPA & DHA omega-3 are known to change the omega-3 content of salmon fillets, impacting the “high in omega3” attribute of salmon, which must be protected for consumer health benefits as well as the continuing success of the salmon farming sector.

Veramaris® natural marine algal oil is a sustainable and consistent alternative source of EPA, DHA, and ARA with a profile that is superior to other sources of omega-3 including highly concentrated fish oil. It enables precise feed formulation and effectively supports Atlantic salmon production. Optimum Omega Nutrition™ by Veramaris® (Fig. 1) is a guideline for meeting EPA & DHA omega-3 and ARA omega-6 requirements, while maintaining the correct omega-3 to omega-6 ratio in salmon diets, leading to improved salmon health and welfare throughout production. By using Veramaris® natural marine algal oil in conjunction with the Optimum Omega Nutrition™ guidelines, fish farmers not only stand to improve productivity, product quality and yield but also lower their marine footprint.

It is intended that salmon farmers will use the new Optimum Omega Nutrition™ white paper to recognize and then act upon the great opportunity they have to

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Figure 1. Optimum Omega Nutrition™ Infographic. Starting in the middle of the illustration, Veramaris® based the Optimum Omega Nutrition™ protocol around the lifecycle of the salmon. The blue bars show how the EPA & DHA requirements are higher for salmon when they are held under more challenging farm conditions. And while the requirement for EPA & DHA reduces through the lifecycle of the fish, it never falls below 10% of total fatty acids. But it’s not enough only to focus on total EPA plus DHA levels. The ratio of EPA:DHA also has to be adjusted through the lifecycle, ending with a ratio of 1.5:1 after 400 g until harvest for best performance. This is because of the important functional role that EPA plays in supporting immune responses as the first line of defense (especially for mediating inflammatory responses). And because of the pro-inflammatory nature of omega-6 fatty acids (such as linoleic acid), the ratio of Omega-3:Omega-6 should also be maintained at 3:1.

optimize the health and welfare of their fish through setting the amount and types of essential fatty acids in their feed. Veramaris® natural marine algal oil enables them to “take control” of their omega nutrition in ways that were not possible just a few years ago. This action helps ensure further sustainable production growth, while protecting the reputation of salmon farming and upholding the brand promise of farmed salmon as a healthy, sustainable and nutritious food, rich in omega-3.

References available on request.

More information: Ian Carr Global Business Development Director Veramaris® E: ian.carr@veramaris.com

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Eco-efficient aquafeeds using emergent ingredients G.V. Pereira, A.M. Fernandes, J. Dias, T.V. Poletto, L. Conceição, SPAROS, C. Hoerterer, J. Petereit, B. Buck, AWI, G. Micallef, GIFAS, J.A. Calduch-Giner, F. Naya-Català, M.C. Piazzon, A. Sitjà-Bobadilla, J. Pérez-Sánchez, IATS-CSIC, F. Faccenda, M. Povinelli, FEM, B. Costas, CIIMAR, J.M.O. Fernandes, Unord, J. Johansen, SHP

The GAIN project aimed to promote the eco-efficiency of aquaculture. Ensuring sustainable feed systems is indicated as one of the main issues for increasing the environmental performance of aquaculture and, therefore, taking part in the green transition. The aquafeed industry has already made very significant progress in this endeavor, through the use of plantbased ingredients, and is striving to progress further on this goal. The current shift towards land-based proteins

and oils could improve the situation in the short term but may not ensure the same nutritional (e.g., n-3HUFAs) and organoleptic properties. Several emerging ingredients have been investigated for a while, although most of them were tested on a one-by-one basis. Thus, there is a need for a new generation of sustainable fish feeds specifically designed to facilitate aquaculture eco-intensification through increased circularity and resource utilization.

Figure 1. Formulation concepts and main ingredients used in GAIN trials with novel aquafeeds. FM: fishmeal; PAP: processed animal protein from farmed animals (e.g., poultry meal, feather meal and blood meal); VCP: vegetable (e.g., pea, rapeseed) protein concentrates from European origin; FPH: fish protein hydrolysates from fisheries and aquaculture byproducts (e.g., fish trimmings, heads and frames); salmon oil: byproduct from salmon farming industry.

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Figure 2. Overview of how different key performance indicators were affected by the GAIN novel aquafeed formulations in the nine fish trials conducted.

GAIN designed and tested a range of novel feeds, which included emerging ingredients, i.e. insects, seaweeds, microalgae as functional ingredients, landanimal Processed Animal Proteins (PAP), fishmeal and oil from fisheries byproducts, microbial biomasses, algal oils, and Fish Protein Hydrolysates (FPH) from aquaculture byproducts. The GAIN formulation concepts are presented in Figure 1. The results of GAIN project shown in the present article comprise two years of trials (totaling nine trials) using a total of five aquaculture species with high market value: salmon, trout, turbot, seabream and seabass.

The feeds design The diets were designed following four main concepts (Fig. 1). Formulations had to be adapted to each species based on their nutritional requirements and tolerance to the ingredients.

Results Atlantic salmon In the salmon trials, growth performance was very similar for the diets tested. Other parameters, including

health scores and intestinal mucosa status, immune defenses and oxidative status in the liver, were also similar. Gene expression in head kidney and liver showed adaptative alterations, suggesting fish have reached a new allostatic balance after an adaptation period.

In short, feed formulations such as NOPAP and PAP are likely viable options to support accelerated growth, good health, and good FCR in Atlantic salmon.

However, good results will depend on the high protein digestibility of the chosen ingredients. Moreover, positive results on consumer perception may arise due to improvements in flesh quality, following results of a 100 consumers test panel.

Gilthead seabream In a first seabream trial, the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was worse in PAP and NoPAP diets, and this may be related to lower protein retention. This trial suggests that fish fed with a NoPAP diet show a slight improvement of innate immunity. Furthermore, mucosal mapping™ results agree with the above results, where the fish fed with NoPAP and MIX diets presented

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Figure 3. Cage feeding of Atlantic salmon at GIFAS (Norway) during the GAIN project.

higher values of barrier status compared to the PAP diet. This result is also supported by the gene expression profile of the head kidney.

In a second seabream trial, the NoPAP diet supplemented with a gut modulating additive regulated the expression of several genes, showing the capacity to reduce the risk of oxidative stress and promote an antiinflammatory response. In fact, this diet may promote immune competence, and no increased susceptibility in a challenge to an intestinal parasite was observed.

Thus, a formulation such as NoPAP, devoid of fishmeal, containing an array of alternative protein sources and 50% of the fish oil replaced with a mix of salmon and algae oils, seems to be a valuable option to support growth, good health, and FCR in seabream.

Turbot Turbot juveniles fed GAIN diets showed good growth and FCR. Further, plasma immune parameters and nutrient retention were unaffected, despite lower protein digestibility in PAP and NoPAP diets compared to control.

Moreover, a feed formulation based on 28% of a lower quality fishmeal and alternative protein sources and replacing 50% of the fish oil by a mix of salmon, algae and rapeseed oils, seems to be a valuable formulation for turbot in the grow-out phase.

Rainbow trout Feed formulations such as NoPAP and PAP, devoid of fishmeal, containing an array of alternative protein sources, are valuable options to support accelerated growth, good health, and very good FCR in rainbow

trout. Moreover, perception in terms of flesh quality was good as evaluated by a panel of 100 consumers.

Conclusions In general terms, it seems trout was the one species that accepted new formulations the best, and turbot was the one that accepted them the worst. Overall, NoPAP diets appear to have better results for all fish species tested during this project. However, the PAP concept seems to be also valid and the less positive results in some species are likely to have to do more with protein digestibility of some batches of ingredients than the PAP concept itself.

Moreover, results on sensory evaluation for salmon, trout and seabass suggest that the novel formulations tested would be well accepted by the consumer.

In short, GAIN feed formulations, including ingredients using aquaculture and fisheries side-streams, and other emerging ingredients adhering to circular economy principles, are viable options for eco-efficient European fish farming, especially once costs of emerging ingredients become price-competitive, and renewable energies are used to produce them.

Watch GAIN videos on novel eco-efficient fish feeds and GAIN outcomes.

More information: Gabriella Pereira Researcher SPAROS E: GabriellaPereira@sparos.pt

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS

Insects as aquafeed ingredients: Opportunities and trends Constantin Muraru, International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF)

Pressured by the need to feed two billion more people globally in line with the limits of the planetary boundaries by 2050, it is clear that food production systems have to undergo a complex transformation.

The aquaculture sector already started this process - from production systems that focus on reducing the environmental impact of fish farming to business models that embrace the principles of circular economy, this decade offers exciting opportunities for fish farmers. But does European aquaculture have the right ingredients to deliver? With increasing pressure on natural resources, novel feed ingredients such as insects offer new avenues for growth. This innovation is also recognized by a recent roadmap for the upcoming decade published by the European Commission, called the Strategic guidelines for a more sustainable and competitive EU aquaculture. Throughout this article, we will provide a concise overview of the

latest developments and upcoming trends regarding the incorporation of insect-derived ingredients into aquafeed.

Why insects?

Insects are nutritious and healthy According to the scientific literature, diets including proteins derived from insects in the feed ratio show similar or better performance to commonly used aquafeed. Generally, insect meal is used as a complementary ingredient or partial replacement of the main protein-rich ingredient (e.g. fishmeal, soybean meal, etc.) with proven nutritional benefits even at low inclusion levels. Having an adequate essential amino acid profile, insects also contain bioactive compounds that enhance the immune function of the target animal, improving health and welfare indicators. Such topics represent a key priority for the scientific community,

Figure 1. The main markets for insect feed products by share (%) of quantities sold (2025 vs 2030). Source: An overview of the European market of insects as feed (IPIFF - April, 2021).

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as preliminary evidence indicates that their use as functional ingredients could be beneficial in reducing the use of synthetic antimicrobials.

Insects are part of the natural diet of numerous fish species A wide range of fish species, such as salmon or trout, have developed their aerial feeding behavior in order to consume non-aquatic protein-rich invertebrates, with insects representing a high share. This confirms that the inclusion of insects into the diet of fish is not only sustainable and nutritious but also aligned with the food such fish species would consume in nature.

Being farmed locally, insects foster the transition towards sustainable circular business models Insects are reared on a wide range of underused agri-food by-/co-products, that are efficiently and safely bioconverted into proteins, lipids and fertilizer (insect frass). Thus, the local production of such feed ingredients not only strengthens agri-food circularity but also improves regional feed self-sufficiency. This element is of crucial importance in making supply chains more resilient, as the experience from the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic reflects the need to reinforce short supply chains. From an economic standpoint, the collaboration between insect producers, feed manufacturers and fish farmers could also safeguard aquaculture from strong economic turbulences caused by fluctuations on the international market.

What do we mean by “insects”?

While in nature fish species feed on a wide range of invertebrates, only some insects are reared to be transformed into feed ingredients (more information on the IPIFF website). Thanks to their nutritional and zootechnical benefits (i.e. amino acid profile, digestibility, immune-boosting properties, animal health and welfare indicators, etc.), these species are among the insects with the highest potential to be incorporated in animal feed. In addition, up to now, the knowledge of their biological life cycle indicates that they are among the most suitable insect species for insect farming. So far, proteins derived from eight species are authorized under the European Union (EU) legislation, with black soldier fly and yellow mealworm being the most frequently used.

“Following the authorization of insect proteins in aquafeed (i.e. in July 2017 - Regulation (EU) 2017/893), aquaculture rapidly became the main market for the European insect farmers active in the production of feed ingredients for farmed animals,” said Christophe Christophe Derrien, secretary-general of the Derrien, secretary-general of International Platform the International Platform of of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF).

Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF).

According to a survey conducted in 2021, this trend is likely to continue in the coming years (Fig. 1), with insects produced for the aquafeed market expected to surpass the quantities targeting the pet food market by the end of the decade.

“Most commonly, aquaculture feedstuffs containing insects are used for the nutrition of salmon, trout, seabream or seabass, species that represent more than 60% of the value of EU aquaculture products,” Derrien said (Fig. 2).

In addition, building on numerous studies and trials, there is growing interest in incorporating insects into the feed ratio of aquaculture species such as shrimps, tilapia, sturgeons and others (references available on request). Major aquaculture feed producers already developed aquafeed that rely on insects and their derived ingredients - with several aquaculture products already on the shelves of European supermarkets.

Concluding remarks: 15 years left to strengthen synergies in fish farming The diversification of the ingredients used in aquaculture is seen as a key enabler for the growth of this sector. While the production of ingredients derived from forage fish decreased in the past two decades, statistics indicate that a growing share of plant-based ingredients were used in feed formulations instead. However, the incorporation of ingredients of vegetal origin posed nutritional challenges for some aquaculture species, mostly due to the presence of antinutritional elements. There are also other issues – the insufficient agricultural land available for the expansion of crop farming and criticism linked to the use of plantbased ingredients farmed on allegedly deforested land in aquafeed reflect some of the concerns of consumers.

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misinformation against the aquaculture sector spread in the online environment.

The use of alternative proteins, such as insects, could be an opportunity to improve communication between farmers and citizens, highlighting best practices and the high level of environmental compliance.

Markets that currently represent a niche, such as organic aquaculture, could also offer new opportunities for insect and fish farmers alike. Insect farming brings valuable solutions to support the growth of organic fish farming, without increasing the proportion of marine products that have a high impact on biodiversity. Yet, to facilitate that, robust and workable standards will have to be put in place at the European and international levels. While the European Figure 2. Composition of EU aquaculture production by main commercial species (in value). Source: The EU fish market EUMOFA - November, 2021).

Commission presently works on developing such standards, IPIFF called for the inclusion of non-organically produced insect-derived ingredients into organic aquaculture feed prior to the establishment of EU organic certification standards for insects as feed (more information in the IPIFF Contribution Paper on organics).

Photo credit: Protix Since the EU authorization of insect proteins in On the other hand, projections indicate that forage aquafeed in 2017, the insect sector learned numerous fisheries will reach ecological limits by 2037. lessons. As concrete commercial partnerships become This means that, while traditionally used feed more visible in several EU member states, IPIFF ingredients will remain relevant feed for numerous members anticipate that the aquaculture market aquaculture species, we have less than 15 years to will remain one of the main targets for insect feed accelerate the development of innovations and facilitate producers. By the end of the decade, it was forecasted their use across Europe and beyond. However, as it was that “more than 10% of the fish consumed in the EU recently reported that already an additional 37.4 million (the equivalent of circa 30 servings for each European) tons of aquafeeds will be required by 2025 (Hua et al., will be derived from fish farms that use insect protein 2019), we might have even less time. in their aquafeed formulations” (IPIFF - April, 2021).

New feed ingredients are thus urgently needed to You might have already eaten insect-fed fish! support the growth of fish farming. Yet, insects alone cannot fill this gap in such a short time. A synergetic References available on request. approach is necessary, building on the complementary properties of traditionally used ingredients (e.g. marine More information: or plant-based) and those referred to as “alternatives” Constantin Muraru (insects, algae, fermentation products, single-cell Communication and Research Manager proteins, etc.). Farmed fish is nutritious and provides International Platform of Insects quality animal protein that brings health benefits for for Food and Feed (IPIFF) humans. Yet, responding to consumer demand and E: info@ipiff.org expectations remains imperative in the context of the

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS

Insect meal improves the survival rate and boosts performance when replacing fishmeal in whiteleg shrimp diets Rafael Hermes, Martin Zorrilla, Nicholas Piggott, Nutrition Technologies

Fish demand for human consumption is rising globally and with rising pressure to be produced sustainably.

Southeast Asia accounts for one third of the global shrimp production, however, the vast majority of the raw materials need to be imported at a high cost and carbon footprint to support a growing production.

Fortunately, the Southeast Asian insect industry is also growing to reach commercial production levels and provides a viable option for the replacement of key feed

ingredients, like fishmeal, that travel long distances with variable prices throughout the year.

In order to assess the effect of locally produced insect meal, we ran a trial to identify what is the best inclusion rate of Hi.Protein® Black Soldier Fly (BSF) meal (51.5% crude protein) to partially replace the fishmeal (FM) in the diets of whiteleg shrimp. There is also an underlying assumption that “sustainable” is synonymous with “expensive”. We also set out to assess the economic

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Table 1. Feed formulas (gram/kg).

INGREDIENTS

Control (Basal Diet)

5% FM replacement

15% FM replacement

25% FM replacement

Anchovy fishmeal, 67%

265

251.8

225.2

198.8

172.2

Soybean meal, 45%

322

328

338

349

350

Hi.Protein®, 50%

0

13.2

39.8

66.2

92.8

Tuna oil

20

17.9

16

13

12

Wheat flour

285

283

283

275

273

Feed grade cholesterol

0

0.05

0.15

0.2

0.3

Soy lecithin

15

16

17

18

19

Amino acids

7.1

7.3

7.8

8.5

9.4

Others

86

83

73

71

71

1000

1000

1000

1000

1000

Total

35% FM replacement

Table 2. Feed composition.

Moisture content (%)

10

Threonine (%)

1.73

Crude protein (%)

39

Cholesterol (mg/kg) 1,100

Crude lipids (%)

7

Phospholipids (%)

2

Lysine (%)

2.59

Calcium (%)

1.26

Methionine (%)

0.93

Phosphorous (%)

1.20

viability of using Hi.Protein® meal in commercial feeds, particularly in SE Asia where cost sensitivity is so high, and assess if there really has to be a price premium on using sustainable ingredients.

The results of our trial in Vietnam demonstrate that insect products can replace fishmeal with the benefit of a better baseline live performance (FCR, ADG, final weight). The insect products also provided increased resilience against a pathogen challenge, which compounds performance benefits in challenging environments. Conducting an economic analysis of the raw material costs and performance improvements, we found that both insect meal and insect oil can be included in feed formulations with commercially affordable outcomes for the farmer.

Trial design and statistical analysis One thousand four hundred healthy shrimp were divided into 5 treatments with 7 replicates for each one, using in each replicate 40 shrimps with a 1.8 g starting size. Treatments were: 1) Control: 0% inclusion of BSF meal; 2) 5% FM replacement: inclusion of 1.3%

of Hi.Protein®; 3) 15% FM replacement: inclusion of 3.9% of Hi.Protein®; 4) 25% FM replacement: inclusion of 6.6% of Hi.Protein®; and 5) 35% FM replacement: inclusion of 9.3% of Hi.Protein®.

Each tank contained 350 L of water that was treated following ShrimpVet’s protocol and contained an aeration system with two air stones, a biofilter bucket and covered with a plastic film to reduce the risk of cross contamination. Modified experimental tank set-up followed the methods described by White et al. (2007).

The trial lasted 44 days, including 2 days of acclimation.

It measured the live performance, the survival rate, water quality parameters and the economic analysis.

Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 25) software, applying the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by the Duncan test to determine differences among treatments. All significant tests shall be at P < 0.05 levels. Results were presented as mean ± standard deviation.

Experimental diets All diets (Table 1) were isonitrogenous and isocaloric and were formulated to satisfy the whiteleg shrimp requirements (Table 2).

Results and discussion In Table 3, the live performance data at the end of the trial are summarized. A higher live yield per tank was observed due to a higher survival rate when

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Table 3. Live performance results.

Treatments

Indiv. initial weight (g)

Indiv. final weight (g)

Survival rate (%)

Feed intake/ tank (g)

Live yield/ tank (g)

FCR (g/g)

Control (basal)

1.79 ± 0.5

12.72 ± 0.9

84.6 ± 7.7c

509.1 ± 8.9

429.6 ± 37.1b

1.43 ± 0.11a

5% FM replacement

1.80 ± 0.5

12.64 ± 1.1

87.9 ± 6.4bc

513.3 ± 19.1

444.5 ± 51.5ab

1.34 ± 0.05ab

15% FM replacement

1.78 ± 0.5

13.14 ± 0.8

87.5 ± 6.3bc

525.0 ± 26.7

460.6 ± 52.3ab

1.31 ± 0.10bc

25% FM replacement

1.79 ± 0.5

12.96 ± 1.1

96.8 ± 2.8a

519.6 ± 25.4

502.2 ± 47.0a

1.19 ± 0.07d

35% FM replacement

1.80 ± 0.5

13.13 ± 1.1

93.6 ± 5.8ab

516.5 ± 19.6

492.0 ± 56.4a

1.22 ± 0.10cd

0.990

0.808

0.030

0.675

0.047

0.001

P-values abc

means significant statistical differences among treatments.

we compared the control group and the 25% FM replacement treatments. As the feed intake was similar for all treatments, the best FCR was observed with the 25% FM replacement.

There are several likely explanations as to why a 25% FM replacement (6.6% inclusion of BSF meal) presented better live performance. It may be due to a more adequate amino acid profile for whiteleg shrimp or to the presence of chitin, which has been reported to have immune-modulating effects and better gut histology parameters. Also, the lauric acid found in the insect meal has been reported to have an antimicrobial effect. These functional benefits of insect meal led to stronger animals that can better survive under challenging conditions.

In Table 4, economical analysis of the trial results is presented using a baseline feed cost of $800/MT and a selling cost of shrimp of $5/kg. It can be concluded that the best cost-benefit is including 6.6% of BSF meal (25%

FM replacement). Investing an additional USD 26/MT on feed with insect meal for whiteleg shrimp, farmers can increase revenues by USD 609, a return on investment of 1:24. These results are of particular interest to producers of functional shrimp feeds, where improved performance is valued over cost reduction strategies, leading to an overall more efficient production system.

Conclusions Beyond simply being a highly digestible animal protein, insect protein is a functional ingredient that can improve animal health. In our study, we have demonstrated its effects on the live performance of whiteleg shrimp and disease resistance. Understanding these functional benefits is an important factor in the successful implementation of this novel and sustainable ingredient in animal nutrition. This study also goes some way towards questioning the assumption that sustainable feeds are necessarily expensive feeds and

Table 4. Economic analysis.

Control (Basal Diet)

5% FM replacement

15% FM replacement

25% FM replacement

$800

$805

$818

$826

$836

0

$5

$18

$26

$36

Feed intake (g/tank)

509

513

525

520

517

Live yield (g/tank)

430

445

461

502

492

Feed efficiency

0.84

0.87

0.88

0.97

0.95

$4,220

$4,332

$4,387

$4,829

$4,758

Revenue difference

0

$112

$167

$609

$538

ROI (USD/USD invested)

0

$23

$10

$24

$15

Feed cost (USD/MT) Feed investment (USD)

Revenue* from 1MT feed

35% FM replacement

*if $5/kg of shrimp

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

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More information: Rafael Hermes Animal Nutrition Director Nutrition Technologies E: rafael@nutrition-technologies.com

Martin Zorrilla CTO Nutrition Technologies

demonstrates that there are formulations where the marginal increase in feed cost (3.25%) yields a 14.4% increase in productivity. This calculation is of course dependent on the price of the insect meal, as well as other key raw materials.

Nicholas Piggott Co-Chief Executive Officer Nutrition Technologies

FEED INNOVATION NETWORK A collaborative network to replace wild-caught fish in aquaculture feeds globally Resources for ingredient suppliers, aquafeed companies, fish farmers, researchers, investors, and policy makers, including: • F3 (fish-free feed) ingredients and feed company profiles • Open formulas for F3 feeds • Evaluation protocols and research facilities • Forage Fish Savings Estimator

Join today at f3fin.org Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS

New insect-derived ingredient can drive performance and boost health in shrimp aquaculture systems Andrew Richardson, Maye Walraven, Innovafeed

With its average global year-on-year growth between 5-10%, the shrimp industry, based mostly in Southeast Asia and Ecuador, has shown tremendous growth over the past decade. It has also shown its resilience throughout the recent pandemic with production remaining stable. As the world’s population climbs towards 8 billion, our food production systems are faced with the challenge of producing more output, with less input. Animal feed is no different. Its production is compounded by competition between various animal feed industries for common feed ingredients. This strong growth and competition are putting pressure on the availability of conventional ingredients which rely on the limited supply of non-renewable natural resources.

In this context, pushing production systems to be more efficient and shifting towards a circular production model will be the hallmarks of sustainable growth in shrimp aquaculture.

In this article, we describe how InnovaFeed is exploiting the intrinsic benefits of insects to drive an increase in both growth performance and health resistance in shrimp with a new highperformance feed ingredient, NovaGainTM, specially designed for shrimp feed.

Novel performance ingredient to boost shrimp production The insect farming industry is a rapidly growing segment of the animal feed industry. It seeks to upcycle lowvalue co-products of the agro-industry, converting them into high-value animal protein and oil sources for

Figure 1. Improved growth performance was demonstrated when NovaGainTM was added to the diets, regardless of the inclusion level tested. FCR was significantly higher in the control diet than in the 7.5% and 10.5% NovaGainTM diets. SGR of shrimp fed treatment diets significantly improved with increasing dietary inclusion, an increase of up to 25.29% compared to shrimp fed the control diet.

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independent research centers around the world on several shrimp species, InnovaFeed is launching NovaGain which leverages BSF’s unique properties while tailoring them specifically for shrimp. This product has demonstrated gains in growth performance, both in feed conversion ratio (FCR) and specific growth rate (SGR) for the shrimp, as seen in the results of the latest trial (Fig. 1). InnovaFeed believes that this bioactive meal, which combines nutritional and functional benefits, has the potential to become a game-changing novel ingredient at inclusion rates of 5-10% in feed ingredients to boost shrimp production, in particular, Litopenaeus vannamei.

Supporting health and welfare to drive down losses and increase yields Beyond supporting better harvest output, this bioactive meal could also be part of the solution to address some of the common diseases which pose considerable challenges to global shrimp production capacity today. There are two diseases in particular – Figure 2. Cumulative mortality of L. vannamei fed diets containing NovaGain when white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) challenged against WSSV and APHND, respectively, showing health performance gains. and acute hepatopancreatic the feed industry. Increasingly used in the Northern necrosis disease (APHND), otherwise commonly European aquaculture industry as a replacement for referred to as early mortality syndrome (EMS) – high-quality fishmeal in salmonid diets, insect protein which could be reduced with the dietary inclusion meal is establishing itself as a key novel ingredient in of NovaGain. the pursuit of sustainable growth for aquaculture. In As aforementioned, ingredients derived from BSF are particular, the black soldier fly (BSF, Hermetia illucens) rich in compounds that can support the innate immune meal is not only a natural bio-concentrate of nutrients response of shrimp. Chitin is a natural compound which but also a new source for molecules such as chitin, in the wild shrimp consume regularly when they feed antimicrobial proteins, and fatty acids - which have on molted exoskeletons. The chitin in the exoskeleton functional properties that are able to boost growth of BSF acts as an immunostimulant (Wang et al., performance and increase health resistance of animals. 2005) by modulating the diversity of the gut bacteria.

After three years of product development and Lauric acid is a short-chain fatty acid that is also a running multiple (>10) trials in partnerships with known antimicrobial agent (Lieberman et al., 2006).

TM

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Figure 3. InnovaFeeds’ circular model drives the competitiveness of NovaGain. An independent LCA (life-cycle assessment) shows the positive role feed choices can have on CO2 impact.

Finally, antimicrobial peptides act as a strong defense mechanism to help insects survive in harsh conditions in the wild and have proven protective effects against these specific diseases in shrimp. These molecules can provide a multitude of defensive actions for shrimp from breaking down bacteria (Gasco et al., 2018) to guarding against WSSV (Xiao et al., 2020).

Building on these unique properties, InnovaFeed has derived the true value of this insect-derived meal by capitalizing on these functional elements and being more than simply a novel source of nutrition. NovaGain positively impacts the survival of the shrimp when challenged against both WSSV and APHND (Fig. 2).

Increased resistance to WSSV is shown with a dietary inclusion rate starting from 4.5% and is shown across each diet containing this insect ingredient. Evidence for increased resistance to APHND is also shown at an inclusion rate of 10.5% in the total diet.

Shrimp health is important for farmers to increase yields, but it also addresses more recent constraints of the industry, such as improving animal welfare

conditions and managing a reputational risk due to disease-related losses.

Generating value from farm to fork By combining the benefits of growth and health performance for shrimp, our product can generate economic value for farmers. This value is derived directly from feeding efficiency improvements and indirectly through growth rate improvements and a reduction of risk due to health concerns. The ingredient can also be used to reduce the amount of fishmeal in shrimp diets at more than a 1:1 ratio – which also means an increased percentage of the diets can be reformulated with considerably cheaper plant-based meals while maintaining the health benefits of the diet for shrimp.

Value is also generated by diets containing this feed ingredient through an improvement in final shrimp product quality. This insect-derived meal has been shown to contain lower levels of heavy metal pollutants and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), thus improving

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shrimp product quality. Furthermore, as drivers such as traceability and feed sustainability are increasingly sought after by leading labels, accreditations and discerning consumers, NovaGain provides a strong communication platform for shrimp farmers and their clients with regards to product differentiation.

Clear market differentiation Novel ingredients such as NovaGain can not only alleviate some pressure on conventional feed ingredients but their use can be directly translated into commercial messaging through direct B2C labels, such as the “vive l’insecte” label in France. This is true of B2B style communications as well, for instance, when launching efforts to reduce FIFO (Fish-in Fish-out) in line with international certification standards such as that of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). The key to this style of messaging hinges on quantifying impact with data-driven evidence, which ensures that communication is clear and effective.

The model that InnovaFeed has developed – one of circularity and co-localization utilizing only GMP+ certified co-products from existing industrial processes as the only feedstock – unlocks the potential of the insect farming industry. By integrating the insect meal industry into existing infrastructures, InnovaFeed reduces the carbon footprint of its processes by 80%.

Standout innovations include sourcing 60% of the energy from heated exhaust vents at a local renewable energy plant and using wet co-products directly piped to the insect rearing facility. A detailed analysis of the process and scientific write up of the independently gathered results has been reported by Phan Van Phi et al. (2020).

InnovaFeed, one of the largest insect meal producers in the world, currently operates two facilities in the

north of France and has global ambitions. In late 2020, it announced a partnership with ADM to build another record-breaking plant in Decatur, Illinois, USA. This plant will be co-located with the largest corn processor in the world and is projected to have a yearly capacity of 60,000 tonnes of BSF protein products.

ADM Decatur's corn-based byproducts will be locally upcycled to feed insects and will be directly conveyed through infrastructures connecting both companies.

This production model will also allow InnovaFeed to use 27MW of residual energy recovered from the ADM process, which previously was not recovered.

Through a focus on industrial-scale volumes, automation, co-product upcycling and quality products, InnovaFeed is set to have a strong impact on shrimp aquaculture and on global agriculture more broadly.

References available on request.

More information: Andrew Richardson Aqua Nutrition Manager InnovaFeed E: andrew.richardson@innovafeed.com

Maye Walraven Head of Business Development InnovaFeed E: maye.walraven@innovafeed.com

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS

Insects in aquaculture feed: Nutrition and beyond Bree Modica, EnviroFlight®

Insects, although natural food items for many animals, have only recently entered the commercial agriculture industry. The most common insects used in animal feeds and pet foods are crickets (Gryllidae), mealworms (Tenebrio molitor), and larvae of the black soldier fly (BSFL; Hermetia illucens). Commercially produced insect ingredients are available as whole dried insect, meal (partially defatted or full fat), oil, and frass (residue from rearing insects including leftover feed, feces, and sheddings). Insects are known for their high protein content and comparable amino acid profiles to those of traditional protein sources, including menhaden fishmeal and soybean meal (Table 1). However, they are also excellent sources of fats, vitamins and minerals.

Nutrient composition of insects will vary depending on diet and life stage at harvest, increasing possibilities for

custom insect ingredient nutrient profiles, specifically regarding protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and calcium (Gligorescu et al., 2018; Oonincx et al., 2019).

In addition to nutrient content, insects are also highly sustainable (Fig. 1). In comparison to the annual protein yield of soybean crops at 0.12 kg/m2, average insect protein yields (accounting for feedstock inputs) have been reported at 2.18, 4.06, and up to 7.93 kg/ m2 for crickets, mealworms, and black soldier fly larvae, respectively (Koutsos et al., 2019). Greater insect protein yields are due to the increased number of annual growth cycles that are yet unattainable with crops (Koutsos et al., 2019). These yields also require significantly less water, feed, and land while producing much less CO2. Phan Van PhI et al. (2020) demonstrated a 51% reduction in CO2 emissions

Table 1. Essential amino acids and associated digestibility (in parentheses) for three novel insect (BSFL, cricket, mealworm) and two traditional (soybean, menhaden fish) meals.

Nutrient (%) BSFL meal1 Cricket meal1 Mealworm meal1

Crude Protein

1

Soybean meal2

Menhaden fishmeal2

54.4

67.4

53.4

45.3

61.3

Arg

2.64 (92)

4.17 (88)

2.93 (94)

3.36 (94)

3.68 (92)

His

1.72 (87)

1.77 (78)

1.75 (91)

1.20 (91)

1.42 (89)

Ile

2.50 (90)

3.31 (83)

2.60 (91)

2.09 (90)

2.28 (92)

Leu

3.77 (90)

5.39 (84)

4.09 (92)

3.34 (89)

4.16 (92)

Lys

4.00 (87)

4.32 (81)

3.41 (89)

2.78 (90)

4.51 (88)

Met

0.90 (93)

1.13 (88)

0.76 (91)

0.64 (92)

1.63 (92)

Phe

2.36 (91)

2.54 (86)

2.26 (91)

2.28 (91)

2.21 (91)

Thr

2.18 (88)

2.63 (84)

2.24 (91)

1.77 (91)

2.46 (89)

Trp

0.79 (97)

0.70 (93)

0.62 (99)

0.59

0.49

Val

5.10 (74)

6.31 (70)

5.69 (74)

2.18 (88)

2.77 (91)

Cys

0.62 (72)

0.73 (69)

0.64 (76)

0.67 (86)

0.57 (73)

Tyr

3.34 (91)

3.69 (77)

4.00 (94)

1.25

1.80

Matin, 2019 2NRC, 1994

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Figure 1. Resource efficiency of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae production. ©2021—EnviroFlight.

to produce insect ingredients compared to that of fishmeal. For a growing global population that has more than doubled its consumption of fish in less than 60 years (FAO, 2020), more sustainable animal feed ingredients must be embraced.

Insects in aquafeeds Not only are insect ingredients highly nutritious and sustainable, but results from their inclusion in aquaculture feeds have been positive for several species. Diets for Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) replacing menhaden fishmeal with BSFL meal at up to 28% inclusion resulted in positive growth responses and whole-body nutrient content (Cummins, Jr. et al., 2017). Juvenile L. vannamei growth performance was also improved when shrimp were fed diets containing up to 50% inclusion of cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) compared to shrimp fed the control diet (Peh et al., 2021). Positive growth performance was demonstrated in both sea-water phase Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fed diets with total fishmeal replacement by BSFL meal (Belghit et al., 2019a), and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fed diets with up to 40% BSFL meal inclusion (Renna et al., 2017), with no effects on fillet sensory qualities (Belghit et al., 2019a; Renna et al., 2017).

In a study focused on sex reversal in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), the inclusion of cricket meal up to 80% of the diet resulted in tilapia with the highest apparent digestibility, weight gain, and feed conversion

efficiency (Perera & Bhujel, 2021). The inclusion of mealworm meal as total replacement for fishmeal in the diets of red seabream (Pagrus major) resulted in significant growth promotion compared to seabream fed the control diet (Ido et al., 2019). Insect frass also demonstrated potential for nutrient value and palatant qualities in aquaculture diets. Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) fed diets containing BSFL frass at up to 300 g/kg of diet also demonstrated increased feed intake and positive growth performance (Yildirim-Aksoy et al., 2020).

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Additionally, insects provide value above and beyond nutrition. Lauric acid and chitin have demonstrated antibacterial, antiviral, and immunomodulatory properties. Lauric acid, a 12-carbon fatty acid, is readily metabolized into energy (Dayrit, 2015). The concentration of lauric acid levels from BSFL oil is comparable to that of palm kernel oil and coconut oil. The lauric acid content of BSFL ingredients has been demonstrated to (1) improve gut microbial communities and intestinal morphology of Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii) fed diets containing 15% inclusion of BSFL meal (Józefiak et al., 2019), and (2) greater whole body lauric acid and significantly lower triacylglycerol levels of freshwater Atlantic salmon fed diets containing BSFL meal and BSFL oil compared to salmon fed the control diet containing fishmeal, soy protein concentrate, fish oil and vegetable oil (Belghit et al., 2019b). The Atlantic salmon results indicate a readily available source of energy due to higher oxidation and lower storage of lauric acid (Belghit et al., 2019b). Chitin, traditionally sourced from crustacean cuticles, functions

as an antifungal, antimicrobial, and antiviral, as well as demonstrating prebiotic fiber properties (Finke, 2007).

Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout fed diets containing insect meals (super worm (Zophobas morio) or BSFL) demonstrated gastrointestinal histological changes of which no negative effects were reported (Lock et al., 2016; Doğankaya, 2017; Renna et al., 2017).

Insect ingredients are a promising, sustainable alternative to traditional proteins in aquaculture diets, while also providing the potential for optimization of gut health and immune status.

References available on request.

More information: Bree Modica Technical Sales EnviroFlight®, LLC E: bmodica@enviroflight.net

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Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

ALTERNATIVE INGREDIENTS

Improving fish value and human health via algal derived omega-3 DHA Jonny Lester, Humanativ

Greater consumption of oily fish and elevated blood levels of the very long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are associated with a reduced incidence of heart attacks, arrhythmias, strokes, depression, cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Despite this stark reminder of the critical importance of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, consumers consistently show low EPA+DHA status (Stark et al., 2016). Over 80% of the world population does not consume the recommended 250 mg EPA+DHA/d (Micha

et al., 2014), predominantly due to low consumption of oily fish. A recent study found that just one-quarter of the UK population consumed oily fish, dropping to only 4.4% of 4 to 11-year-olds (Derbyshire, 2019).

EPA and DHA are important throughout life: in utero, in infancy, childhood, adulthood and into older age.

As indicated above, EPA and DHA are particularly important for adults to promote cardiac and brain health. For children, EPA and DHA are considered especially important for the brain. A number of studies with children have demonstrated improvements in

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

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Figure 1. Groups in the double-blinded, randomized controlled study with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

cognition and mental health in children whose oily fish intake, and blood DHA levels, increased (Sorensen et al., 2015; Teisen et al., 2020).

Up to now, oily fish such as salmon has been the major source of EPA and DHA. But given the insufficient intake of oily fish, we need to afford consumers more choice.

To this end, we should consider the possibilities to bio-enrich more fish species and non-fish species with EPA and DHA. Humanativ was thus inspired to find a way of naturally enriching foods that are both widely consumed and relatively affordable – initially chicken and eggs, followed by turkey and pork, with work now continuing on lamb and veal.

The bioavailability of EPA and DHA from oily fish exceeds that of many supplements (Elvevoll et al., 2006).

But is the DHA in non-traditional bio-enriched foods such as chicken and eggs bioavailable to consumers in the same way that it is in oily fish?

Animal nutrition specialists Devenish commissioned a double-blinded, randomized controlled study with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland to answer this question (Stanton et al., 2020). One hundred and sixtyone participants were split into four groups (Fig. 1).

They each consumed at least three portions per week of chicken and eggs, either standard foods or naturally enriched with omega-3 DHA, for six months. The omega-3 DHA enriched chicken and eggs were achieved by including algal-derived omega-3 DHA (OmegaPro) in the diet of the animals.

Consumption of omega-3 DHA enriched chicken and eggs reduced by 65% the number of participants with a very low (=very high risk) omega-3 index (Fig. 2, color red) and reduced blood pressure by 3 mm Hg. This would be expected to translate to a 15% reduction in cardiovascular mortality. The findings prove that similar to oily fish, the DHA in non-traditional bioenriched foods such as chicken and eggs is bioavailable to consumers.

Consumer research conducted by Humanativ (June 2021) in the UK showed significant interest in the concept of omega-3 enriched chicken and eggs, with 73% of respondents interested in trying the product. It also showed there was a willingness, and expectation, that there would be a price premium for such a product.

Interestingly, there was also a perception of higher welfare in animals fed a diet containing omega-3 DHA. This perception is well-founded, as well as providing a healthier product with increased levels of omega-3 DHA for the consumer, a number of advantages to the animals themselves have been observed when their diets include omega-3 DHA. In poultry, for example, a reduction in inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract was observed, accompanied by changes in the gut microbiome, namely reduced pathogenic bacteria and increased bacteria responsible for short-chain fatty acid production (McKenna et al., 2020).

Numerous studies on dietary omega-3 DHA have also shown improvements in poultry performance including growth rate, final body weight and feed conversion ratio. In fish species, EPA and DHA have been shown to be important across all life stages, supporting growth and development, health, and survival. It’s therefore little wonder that studies on the effects of omega-3 supplementation continue not only in fish but in other farmed species e.g. poultry, pork, lamb and veal that are not traditionally associated with being a source of omega-3 for consumers.

Algal oil-derived omega-3 as an alternative to fish oil Traditionally, fish oil was used as the omega-3 DHA enrichment source. However, with a finite availability, and global expansion of the aquaculture industry, the need for alternative sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in aquaculture is greater than ever.

Recent research has shown that algal oil provides several advantages over fish oil. High DHA algal oil

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

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Figure 2. Distribution of the red cell omega-3 index of the participants in the four groups at 6 months (Stanton et al., 2020).

reduces the inclusion rate in the diet and provides a highly consistent ingredient for feed formulation.

Several studies have shown that issues with taste and taint in non-fish species can also be reduced with the use of algal oil compared to fish oil. In terms of sustainability, which is of increasing importance to consumers, algal oil is seen as a much more responsible source of omega-3 compared to fish oil, as it reduces the dependence on ocean catch.

Increasing opportunities within aquaculture Aquaculture provides more than 50% of the total global requirement of fish for human consumption and is playing an increasingly important role in global food security, providing a “superfood” that supplies high levels of essential nutrients and a rich source of EPA and DHA. While oily fish are seen as being the major source of EPA and DHA, other farmed species such as carp, tilapia and shrimp, which represent more than 80% of global aquaculture production, present a huge opportunity to ensure food and nutritional security for the wider global community. A number of studies have demonstrated the possibility of enriching tilapia and carp fillets with long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (Stoneham et al., 2018; Sobczak et al., 2020). These species also represent an opportunity for producers

to further improve their value by increasing omega-3 content and achieving higher prices in the marketplace.

Enriching more fish species, as well as non-fish species, with algal-derived omega-3 DHA will encourage greater consumption of this critically important nutrient. This has the potential to make a significant impact on health at a global level, and on healthcare budgets. If multiple options for consumers were available, making the healthy sustainable choice would increasingly become the easy choice.

Humanativ is a joint venture between Devenish Nutrition and Mara Renewables Corporation, dedicated to creating natural food produce that positively influences human health.

References available on request.

More information: Jonny Lester Head of Sales Humanativ

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

COLUMN

The three dimensions of aquaculture’s sustainability in Africa for food safety Dr Mustapha Aba Dr Mustapha Aba is Aquaculture Scientific Expert from Morocco. E: aba.mustapha@gmail.com

Introduction In Africa, agricultural development is seen as a necessity to address the food insecurity faced by many countries, especially as the continent's growing population is, in itself, a threat to food security and the environment.

Sustainability of food production is a subjective term used to describe how the planet allows humans to use and benefit from goods and services in a way that does not interfere with the continued provision of these environmental services. To ensure increasing food security, sustainable agricultural innovations are needed to meet future food needs.

Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing animal production sectors in Africa. The sustainable aquaculture approach aspires to promote its sustainable development, which remains an alternative to fishing for fish production but which must be carried out with less environmental impact, economically viable and socially acceptable, the three dimensions to ensure the sustainability of aquaculture.

African aquaculture Although Africa has the fastest growing aquaculture industry with high biophysical potential, the sector has not yet significantly contributed to sustainable food supplies and economic development. According to The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (FAO, 2020), in 2018, aquaculture production exceeded fisheries production with 82 million tonnes coming from aquaculture production, including 54.3 million tonnes of fish. The share of aquaculture in Africa has reached 2.196 million tonnes and the continent's

aquaculture production is expected to grow by 48% to 3.25 million tonnes in 2030. Most of Africa's aquaculture production (99%) comes from inland freshwater systems and is mainly dominated by the cultivation of indigenous and abundant species of Nile tilapia and African catfish, while mariculture contributes only 1% of total production. Among the major causes of weakness of aquaculture in Africa are that this sector is new compared to agriculture (except in Egypt), poor aquaculture facilities, the dominance of the extensive system, poor quality of aquaculture feed, unavailability of fish seed, and lack of training in aquaculture.

Aquaculture and food security in Africa The term “food security” was defined by FAO (1996) as “a condition when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the world has committed to ending all forms of food and nutrition insecurity. Yet, food insecurity remains one of the most visible dimensions of poverty, particularly in Africa, which knows rapid population growth outstrips growth in fish supply.

Although fish provides 19% of animal protein intake in Africa, annual per capita fish consumption remains below global levels. Taken in the context of greater regional food insecurity and a projection that Africa's population will double by 2050, aquaculture is expected to play an important role in providing valuable animal protein-based foods to food-insecure populations,

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hence the need to develop this sector in Africa to ensure food security for Africans, but in a sustainable manner to meet sustainable development goals.

Sustainable development The concept of sustainable development was formulated in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development, created by the United Nations General Assembly, as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This definition integrates environmental stewardship with social responsibility and economic gain, thereby presenting an understanding that exclusive focus on economic growth ignores and impedes social development and environmental protection. The approach to sustainable development has been presented as a “shared vision”, from a conceptual point of view, which has largely been represented by the conception of the “three pillars”, environmental, economic and social, and aquaculture presents favorable conditions in its means of production to be carried out in a sustainable manner in Africa.

Sustainable aquaculture for Africa With the expansion of African aquaculture, the concept of sustainable aquaculture the key to feeding the population, and is increasingly recognized as integrating the spatial and temporal dimensions. Sustainable aquaculture focuses on the balance of the three components of sustainable development to refer to the desirable way of producing aquatic organisms.

The social dimension Social sustainability is based on the promotion of well-being among the members of an organization from a social development perspective, with the aim of improving the living conditions of rural people, rural communities and poverty alleviation. In order to improve the nutritional quality of children and to participate in the social development of their communities, more African women need to be involved in the aquaculture sector.

The economic dimension The impacts of aquaculture on the economy of rural communities are key issues for sustainable development policies, since the establishment of aquaculture

Training session in feeding management for fish farmers in Mali.

businesses in a region can influence the availability of input factors like skilled labor, specialized suppliers, education programs, and other infrastructure. It has been reported that the establishment of commercial aquaculture is generally accompanied by a relative decline in the price of fish in markets where low-income consumers particularly benefit, which helps improve livelihoods with an economic revival of the region and the nation.

The environmental dimension As with any food production system, increased aquaculture production will come with environmental costs. In this context, the environmental impact of aquaculture and the prospects for its sustainability have raised concerns since the early 1990s. Today, aquaculture production must be managed in an ecologically responsible and sustainable manner.

For this, it is necessary to develop research in the field of fish nutritional sciences to meet the needs of aquaculture in Africa and to encourage the integration of aquaculture with agriculture to increase water productivity such as rice-fish farming, which is already successful in Africa and aquaponics systems.

Conclusion African aquaculture, which is growing rapidly, is considered a very important source of animal food production for food security in a continent with a growing population, for this, aquaculture to be sustainable, it should have ecological, economic and social dimensions.

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

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www.fie.com.au

8 – 10:

2022 Purchasing and Ingredient Suppliers Conference, USA

www.afia.org

10 – 11:

Food & Feed Drying Technology, South Africa

www.fie.com.au

23 – 25:

AquaFuture Spain

www.aquafuturespain.com

24 – 25:

3rd International Webinar on Aquaculture and Marine Biology, Online

www.conferencemind.com

28 – April 1:

XVI International Symposium on Aquaculture Nutrition, Online

aema.mx

3 – 5:

Aquaculture UK

www.aquacultureuk.com

24 – 27:

World Aquaculture 2021, Mexico

www.was.org

25 – 26:

Aquafarm, Italy

www.aquafarm.show

26 – 27:

Design of Food Extrusion Dies, Norway

www.fie.com.au

30 – June 1:

Aquafeed Extrusion Technology, Norway

www.fie.com.au

31 – June 2:

VICTAM & VIV Europe, The Netherlands

victaminternational.com

MARCH

MAY

JUNE 5 – 9:

XX International Symposium on Fish Nutrition and Feeding, Italy www.isfnf2022.org

8 – 10:

Aquaculture Symposium Guatemala

export.co.gt

8 – 10:

World Shrimp Trade Conference and Exhibition

infofish.org

12 – 16:

Insect to Feed the World, Canada

ifw2020.org

20 – 22:

Applied Food & Feed Extrusion, Thailand

www.fie.com.au

Aquafeed: Advances in Processing & Formulation Vol 14 Issue 1 2022

Sustainable Aquaculture – Feeding Africa AQUACULTURE AFRICA 2021 Alexandria Egypt • March 25 - 28, 2022 The 1st Annual International Conference & Exposition of the African Chapter of the World Aquaculture Society (AFRAQ2021) Egypt is the biggest aquaculture producer in the continent. Both local and international aquaculture delegates will converge for the event at the beautiful City of Alexandria, the Pride of the Mediterranean Sea.

Mérida, Mexico

Hosted by

Centro Internacional de Congresos de Yucatán, CIC

Conference Management Exhibits & Sponsors WAS - African Chapter worldaqua@was.org Mario Stael Blessing Mapfumo Chapter Founding Gold Sponsor Conference Sponsor www.was.org mario@marevent.com africanchapter@was.org and AFRAQ 2020 Gold Sponsor

May 24-27, 2022 Annual global meeting of the World Aquaculture Society

Egyptian Aquaculture Society (EgAS)

Silver Sponsor

WAS Premier Sponsors

WAS Premier Sponsors

World Aquaculture Singapore 2022

Nov. 29 - Dec. 2, 2022

Singapore EXPO Convention & Exhibition Centre and MAX Atria

AUG. 15 - 18, 2022

The Annual International Conference & Exposition of World Aquaculture Society

ST. JOHN’S CONVENTION CENTRE

ST. JOHN’S NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR, CANADA

Asian Pacific Aquaculture 2020 – Annual Meeting of Asian Pacific Chapter, WAS Hosted by Singapore Food Agency Conference Sponsors Temasek Polytechnic, Nanyang Technological University National University of Singapore, James Cook University Republic Polytechnic 3rd International Symposium on Perch and Bass WAS Premier Sponsors

WA2020 Partner @WASAPC

@WASingapore WASAPC

Associate Sponsors Aquaculture Engineering Society International Association of Aquaculture Economics & Management WorldFish

For details: aquacultureassociation.ca | was.org | naia.ca

For More Information Contact:

Conference Manager | P.O. Box 2302 | Valley Center, CA 92082 USA Tel: +1.760.751.5005 | Fax: +1.760.751.5003 | Email: worldaqua@aol.com | www.was.org Trade Show Contact: mario@marevent.com WA 4 show AD 210x297mm.indd 1

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