Using the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) Salmon Standard as a framework, the GSI 2016 Sustainability Report documents members’ environmental and social performance across 14 key sustainability indicators, and highlights improvements in responsible business practices. Among the findings, the report notes continuing improvements in the responsible use of feed ingredients, with the average feed conversion ratio for farmed salmon now at 1.3:1. “Setting ambitious sustainability goals remains a crucial factor for every individual company. However, sector-wide transformation can only happen through collective sustainability initiatives such as the GSI, which represents almost 50% of the global salmon industry.\"

The American Feed Industry Association released a statement in response to former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue\'s confirmation as secretary of agriculture. \"The feed industry looks forward to working closely with Sec. Perdue, assisting him and his staff on animal food-related topics, and how our industry relates to other agriculture sectors and to consumers. We expect Sec. Perdue\'s government and agriculture experience to align with the industry\'s initiatives, and plan to provide our industry\'s input and support on various issues including trade and the impending farm bill.\"

Mycotoxin-related threats to livestock production have risen in most regions of the world over the first quarter of 2017. More than 14000 analyses were conducted on 3715 finished feed and raw commodity samples sourced from 54 countries from January to March 2017 as part of the Biomin Mycotoxin Survey. The survey found a recent rise in mycotoxin contamination levels observed for corn, finished feed and soy. Deoxynivalenol (DON) was detected in 80% of samples, and is the most prevalent mycotoxin worldwide, followed by fumonisins (FUM), found in 71% of samples. 76% of feed and raw commodity samples contained two or more mycotoxins.

The current public consultation on the ASC-MSC Seaweed Standard and Certification and Accreditation Requirements will close on April 30, 2017.

In January 2017, Aprosoja-MT, ABIOVE, FEDIOL, FEFAC and IDH signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to stimulate the production and trade of Brazilian responsible soy. As a follow-up to this agreement, a 1st steering group meeting with approximately 20 people was held in São Paolo on April 6-7 2017 to discuss and evaluate individual actions and projects that can feed into a joint strategic working plan for the Brazilian and European soy supply chain partners.

The benefits of probiotics keep adding up for livestock producers. Research shows that including probiotics in rations can improve producers’ return-on-investment through better feed efficiency, increased production or even more robust immune responses. “There are four keys to obtaining a positive result from probiotic use. They are simple steps that may seem very intuitive but when applied to probiotics, they release the power within these little microorganisms to improve animal well-being and productivity.”

Perspectives on Marine Aquaculture in California and the U.S. is a short film produced by the Aquarium of the Pacific and its Seafood for the Future program that features prominent scientists and experts on the topic of marine aquaculture in California and the U.S. In this film the experts discuss marine aquaculture’s role in the global food supply and as a conservation tool, the state of domestic marine aquaculture, and the future of marine aquaculture in the U.S. and California.

Boosting dietary tryptophan amounts also bumps weight gain, amino acid retention for Nile tilapia eating cornsoy diet, say researchers. “The objective of this study was to determine the dietary tryptophan (Trp) requirements to optimize growth performance of juvenile Nile tilapia,” said the researchers.

Scotland’s salmon farming sector generated more money than the entire UK fishing industry for the first time ever last year. So reported Gilpin Bradley, interim Chair of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organization (SSPO), in a keynote speech delivered at a conference on careers in aquaculture which took place at the University of Stirling\'s Institute of Aquaculture today.

Aller Aqua Egypt and the AquaBioTech Group have been presented with AgraMe awards in Dubai. Aller Aqua Egypt\'s ALLER PARVO EX has been named the “Best New Product for the Middle East Market – Aquaculture” and the AquaBioTech Group was awarded the Aquaculture Farm Innovation Award for the development of the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Centre for Marine Research (Phase 2). “Congratulations to AquaBioTech Group and all the companies that have been selected, they play an important part in creating a stronger aquaculture industry in the Middle East.”

Skretting Africa has constructed what it describes as the first dedicated fish feed plant in Zambia, to assist the country’s fast-growing aquaculture industry reach its full potential.

US aquaculture producers should be able to transport live fish across state boundaries without the prospect of inadvertently triggering draconian penalties, following a ruling by a Court of Appeal last week.

A new species of shrimp has been named after Pink Floyd thanks to a pact between prog rock-loving scientists. The synalpheus pinkfloydi uses its large pink claw to create a noise so loud it can kill small fish.

An aquaculture hatchery in far north Queensland has sent 2,500 free fish to farms affected by the outbreak of white spot disease, in what has been described as a \\\"small ray of sunshine\\\" for shrimp farmers and is a step towards growing the market for giant groper.

Dr. John Tinsley to become Technical Director and head of product development for BioMar in Central America from June 1st.

The possibility of truly sustainable tuna aquaculture is now closer to reality due to a recent breakthrough in feed formulation research, which was presented at the Offshore Mariculture Conference in Ensenada, Mexico last month by Dr. Alejandro Buentello of Ichthus Unlimited, LLC.

The use of protein and fats of vegetable origin has potential negative effects on the environment, as most of the fishmeal alternatives are cultivated in highly bio-diverse tropical and equatorial regions and could derive from unsustainable deforestation practices...

A Memorial University researcher is working with local and international industry partners on a new approach to consistent urchin roe production, with the hope of creating a green sea urchin farming industry in Newfoundland and Labrador. He is conducting a research project to determine the suitability of a revolutionary feed on local green sea urchins. The feed is known for the quick production of large volumes of high-quality roe in other parts of the world, but has never been tested in a cold-water system like Newfoundland and Labrador’s. The global right holders for the feed, Kaston International AS, a Norwegian company operating under the venture name Urchinomics, is also a project partner.

Scottish salmon will soon be fed with proteins recovered from the whisky production process after a biotechnology firm revealed it is close to building its first processing facility. After two successful large-scale proof of concept trials at a distillery in Dufftown, Horizon Proteins is finalising venture capital investment to set up a production hub in the North East of Scotland. “That has allowed us to start talking to investors and we can now go to the next stage where we can start building.”

The Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Partnership (AADAP) program wants to expand the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved label for Halamid Aqua (100% chloramine-T). In order to do this, they need to generate field effectiveness studies that will be both acceptable to FDA and help support expanding the label. Studies can focus on use of chloramine-T to control mortality in any species of freshwater-reared salmonid due to columnaris disease, or use of chloramine-T to control mortality in any species on freshwater-reared non-salmonids due to bacterial gill disease.