The IFFO RS Standard has continued to expand its reach, with 118 certified marine ingredients producing factories located in 16 countries. Morocco is the latest country to join the program, and by the end of this year, the program will represent almost 45% of the total world output of fishmeal and fish oil. At it\'s last meeting, the IFFO RS Governance Board (GB) decided to carry out a full strategic review in 2017 to agree on the Standard going forward to 2025. The first full draft of the IFFO RS V2.0 Standard (excluding mixed trawl fishery criteria) should be ready and opened for a 60-day public consultation period beginning in January 2017.

WorldFish launched a new six-year strategy last week aimed at boosting sustainable aquaculture production and small-scale fisheries in developing countries. The strategy, aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sees increased emphasis on the development of improved fish breeds and feeds, strengthening fisheries governance, and delivering nutrition outcomes. To boost yields, WorldFish will build on its long-running tilapia and carp breeding programs to develop new knowledge and technology in improved breeds, fish health, aquafeeds and management practices. WorldFish will also develop and implement novel aquaculture and fisheries production systems, in particular fish-rice systems, research methods to reduce post-harvest waste and losses and continue to develop novel fish-based products.

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has announced a public consultation on proposed operational updates to the ASC Salmon, Tilapia and Pangasius Standards. The consultation period will run for two months, after which the ASC aims to publish the revised versions of the Standards. Your comments will help to determine whether the proposed changes are viable or whether there needs to be any final amendments made to the proposals in order for the revised standards to be published.

The successful management of commercial aquafeeds for shrimp requires understanding the aquatic environment and the availability and enhancement of natural food production, management of pond water and bottom, feed handling and storage, feed application method and feeding regime. Substantial technical information is available on shrimp-feeding behavior and interpreting this information can sometimes be difficult because some data can often seem contradictory.

Commercial production of cobia often still relies on the use of natural forage/trash fish as feed inputs because existing aquafeed formulations are deemed inadequate, unaffordable, or both. The availability of a cost-effective grow-out feed formulation is an ongoing bottleneck for the expansion of cobia aquaculture. To help address this constraint and facilitate technology transfer to feed manufacturers interested in developing specific formulations for cobia, here we summarize the findings of several lipid nutrition projects.

The Advanced Research Initiatives for Nutrition & Aquaculture (ARRAINA) project has released the final in a series of three technical booklets on the nutrition and feeding of fish farmed in Europe. The booklet is specifically aimed at scientists and feed producers, but it also targets other industrial segments (e.g. fish farmers, feed additives companies, retailers) and individuals interested in gaining further knowledge of the physiological consequences of the raw materials that are currently used in the feeds of farmed fish.

The American Feed Industry Association recently released a training video on \'The Qualified Individual.\' The FSMA animal food rule requires facilities to train Qualified Individuals who manufacture, process, pack or hold animal food to ensure those employees are qualified to perform their assigned duties. The AFIA training video provides information on animal food hygiene and animal food safety, including the importance of employee health and personal hygiene, as appropriate to the person\'s assigned duties. \"We created this as a member benefit, and want it to be as accessible as possible.\"

In preparation for expanded Veterinary Feed Directives on January 1, 2017, GlobalVetLINK has announced that current and transition FDA-approved VFD drugs are active in its FeedLINK® Electronic VFD System. “We’ve continuously received questions about how to handle inventoried feed that will require a VFD on January 1, and whether or not VFDs can be written before that date. On December 13, the plan is that all of the drugs that have finalized their labels will be in the system, so they can work with their clients to get them what they need, when they need it.”

The fishing company Nordic Wildfish has been assisting in the development of a new technology that can make use of the entire by-product from whitefish such as cod, pollock and haddock. Instead of discarding the heads, guts and the rest of the fish, they can all be incorporated into a hydrolysis process that separates the bones, leaving a kind of \"soup\" to which enzymes can be added and valuable oils and proteins extracted.

Zhanjiang-based Guangdong Yuehai Feed Group, one of the largest aquatic feed producers in the country, plans to invest in Vietnam and India to tap into those markets. Preliminary work is under way for a plant in Vietnam designed to produce 50,000 to 80,000 tons of shrimp and fish feed annually, said Han Shulin, vice-president of the group. The group will invest more than $10 million in the wholly-owned project.

The Supreme Court upheld a High Court verdict that had asked to shut down factories that are using toxic tannery waste to produce poultry and fish feed in Dhaka’s Hazaribagh area. Earlier, traders used to import bone meal to produce feed. Meat and bone meal, a protein-rich substance, is an essential ingredient for fish and poultry feed. Around 10 years ago, however, the practice of using tannery waste in producing fish and poultry feed was started by corrupted businessman as the price of imported protein has gone up over the years.

Aller-Aqua has announced the appointment of Kristian Jensen as Global Technical Manager. Kristian will strengthen the coordination of processes and information between factories, and will further optimize production performance on many different levels.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released a revised Compliance Policy Guide (CPG) about the extralabel use of new animal drugs approved for use in or on animal feed (medicated feeds) for minor species, including fish. Because of the need to have therapeutic options available for treatment of minor species, and to help ensure animal safety and human food safety, FDA issued the CPG to provide guidance to FDA staff about factors to consider when determining whether to take enforcement action against a veterinarian, animal producer, feed manufacturer, and/or feed distributor for the extralabel use of medicated feeds in minor species.

Studies demonstrate that hydrolyzed soy protein can be well digested and utilized by Pacific white shrimp, and that digestibility is improved through a bioprocess with the bacterium Lactobacillus spp.

After 14 years with the USDA\'s Agricultural Research Service, Rick Barrows talks to GAA about the importance of finding \"a complete package,\" in terms of an alternative source of omega-3 fatty acids, and continuing innovation in the aquafeed sector.

Nutreco has launched its new sustainability program Nuterra, which sets out the company’s sustainability strategy and provides tools to implement it throughout the entire organization. “The word ‘sustainability’ has been grossly overused and in many ways its meaning has eroded over the last decade. The challenge for corporations like Nutreco is to keep it relevant, credible and measurable. That is precisely what we aim for with Nuterra.\"

AgriProtein Technologies has granted its Australian partner Twynam Group licenses to build and operate 20 fly-factories across Australasia. The fly-factories will produce industrial volumes of the insect-based feed (MagMeal™). When operational, the 20 factories together will be able to recycle 1.8 million tonnes of waste per year across the region. “Today marks another step in the fight to replace fish-meal in aquaculture and animal feeds – the start of a global roll-out of the only tried and tested, commercially-viable alternative.\"

The Responsible Aquaculture Foundation has launched two new online courses for aquaculturists: Total Suspended Solids Management in Aquaculture and pH Management in Aquaculture. Developed with the assistance of renowned expert Dr. Claude Boyd, the free courses are the first in a new series of RAF courses on water quality. \"The new courses on water quality are designed to help producers identify and manage problems that can greatly affect the health and growth of their fish and shrimp. We are working on several more related courses to complete a full curriculum on water quality.\"

Growth in global fish production is expected to slow slightly this year, driven primarily by lower catches of major wild species including anchoveta. Production solely from aquaculture continues to increase at a steady rate with a further 5 percent increase in total volume expected in 2016. Global per capita consumption of fish is rising each year by approximately 1 percent, and the proportion of fish produced by the aquaculture sector for human consumption is forecast to reach 53 percent this year. Low or stable supplies of many highly-traded species can be expected to push global seafood prices up further in the medium term. The recent contraction of the anchoveta supply following the El Niño weather event is likely to drive up fish feed prices, which in turn increases costs for producers of farmed carnivorous species around the world.

Nutriad has released the results of their 2016 mycotoxin survey, concluding that this year’s harvest of wheat in the UK and Ireland is of medium quality (>LOD but below EU recommendation levels) in terms of mycotoxin contamination. Based on the results of the survey, conducted immediately after the 2016 harvest, Nutriad experts believe that this year’s wheat crop in the UK and Ireland should not automatically be considered safe for inclusion into finished feed rations for all animal species, and a degree of vigilance is prudent. The 2016 Nutriad Mycotoxin Survey covers 66 samples from all over Great Britain and Ireland. More than 500 analyses were conducted to test for the occurrence of the eight mycotoxins most frequently found in agricultural commodities intended for animal production.