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Development of a sustainable natural chemostimulant for shrimp feed By Charles Derby Ph.D., Anant Bharadwaj Ph.D., and George Chamberlain Ph.D.
The development of fishmeal alternatives in the aquaculture of shrimp has been a benefit to the industry, but these feeds require the addition of chemostimulants to enhance their attractability and palatability. Marine animal meals have typically been used as protein sources and palatants, but sustainable, cost-effective alternatives are needed. This article describes our development of an effective non-marine and non-animal meal chemostimulant. Aquaculture feeds use a large share of the world’s supply of fish meal and
other marine animal meals (Alltech, 2017), and the global supply of marine meals and oils is on a downward trend and so the supply cannot expand to meet the increasing demand for aquaculture feeds (Rabobank, 2015). Alternative sources of protein are being pursued (Naylor et al., 2009). Plant proteins such as soy products and livestock meals are regarded as good alternatives to fish meal and are increasingly being used in aquafeed formulations as they are readily available, economical, and sustainable (Chamberlain, 2010). This is true in the aquaculture of Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, the predominant cultured shrimp in the
world. However, high-soy feeds are relatively poor in terms of attractability and palatability to shrimp, which results in feed wastage, low feed conversion, and ultimately reduced profitability. Thus, attractants are typically included in feeds to improve their attractability and intake and to reduce feed wastage. Most attractants are derived from marine animal ingredients, but there is a need to reduce their use in order to keep feeds sustainable (Naylor et al., 2009, Chamberlain, 2010). In some cases, aquaculture byproducts are recycled as feed ingredients, but these pose the risk of disease transmission. Hence, there is interest in developing