Land O’Lakes, Inc. has signed a letter of intent to acquire Southern States Cooperative, Inc.’s animal feed business, which manufactures a range of feeds including fish feed. “We are pleased with the opportunities this partnership with a fellow cooperative brings to Southern States. Our members will continue to receive the same level of service from our retail locations while benefitting from Land O’Lakes’ feed business, Purina Animal Nutrition and their knowledge and experience in manufacturing the quality feed our customers expect.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced an open period for applications for grants to support the development of new animal drugs intended for minor species or minor uses in major species. Qualified studies include those intended to support target animal safety or effectiveness, environmental safety, or human food safety. Subject to the availability of funds, grants will be available for up to $100,000 per year for up to two years for routine studies; and up to $150,000 per year for up to two years for studies of unusual complexity, duration or size. A third year of funding may be available for long-term toxicology studies.

The Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) biosecurity area management standards have been released for a 60-day public comment period. The standards apply to groups of cooperating farms that nurture a collective, risk-mitigating model of good governance across a defined aquaculture area. “All stakeholders are encouraged to participate in this public comment exercise so that the finished standards can benefit from the most broad-based input possible.”

BioMar-Tongwei Biotech (Wuxi) Ltd has acquired 100 % of the shares in the fish feed company Haiwei, situated in the South of China. “We are confident that BioMar can contribute to the further development of Haiwei and continue their success through process knowledge, R&D methodology, and continuous improvement of feed recipes”

The 2016 Annual World Congress of Aquaculture and Fisheries (WCAF) has come to an end. This year\'s event had 400 participants from 46 different countries. As part of the WCAF program, Dr Nagel held a presentation on Aller Aqua’s VITAMAX feeds, as a method for increasing the immune system in fish and thus relieving pressure to medicate. This took place is a special session on new developments within feeds and feed ingredients.

Cooke Aquaculture is ramping up the use of feed barges at its farms in Canada and Scotland in a bid to lower industry costs and improve on industry sustainability practices. The Canadian company has installed nine Steinsvik feeding systems in its global operations with another 12 scheduled for delivery in 2017 and 2018.

Antimicrobial consumption in Danish animals has continued to decrease in 2015. A cool summer has resulted in fewer disease problems in Danish fish farms and antimicrobial consumption is thus 42 per cent lower in 2015 than the year before. A successful vaccination strategy has also helped to generally reduce consumption in fish farms.

Rating company Moody\'s Investors Service will maintain the corporate bonds rating of Pesquera Exalmar SAA in the B3 rating, with a negative outlook, according to its latest risk rating report. Given the latest quota and effective catch levels generated as a result of El Niño Phenomenon, the report mentions that the rating incorporates \"a limited operational scale and modest diversification compared to regional peers and other companies in the sector, exposure to volumes and volatile prices in the fishmeal and fish oil markets, sensitivity of flows to the regulatory framework and climatic conditions as well as a pronounced seasonality of cash flow

Six post-graduate students from three Chinese universities were recently awarded Jefo Graduate Scholarships in Aquaculture. The 2016 class of recipients include He Jie and Zhu Jianming of Soochow University, Liu Kang and Xie Rui-Tao of Guangdong Ocean University, and Zhao Xinxin and Shi Ze from Shanghai Ocean University. The 2016 winners are involved in diverse array of research such as toxicity of heavy metals and pesticides, nutritional requirements of some novel species, gut microflora and enzyme application in a variety of aquatic species from mussel to catfish to cobia to carp to crab.

Nutriad has completed the 2016 Nutriad Mycotoxin Survey, which included 73 wheat and 32 triticale samples collected across Poland. More than 800 analyses were conducted to test for the presence of the 8 mycotoxins most frequently found in agricultural commodities that are intended for animal feed production. The survey provided an insight into the incidences of aflatoxin B1 (AfB1), zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON), T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, fumonisin B1 (FB1), fumonisin B2 (FB2) and ochratoxin A (OTA) across all regions of Poland.

Over 400 fish farmers in Lira district are delighted after getting the first fish feed mill in their area which will save them costs of having to travel to Kampala to fetch feeds for their fish. The expenditure on transport costs has been hindering the farmers’ profit margin but this fish feed mill will help them save on the transport costs they have been incurring to get fish feeds and this is a plus because farmers’ incomes will increase and help them in their livelihood.”

The Ministry of Agriculture has begun a new partnership with the USAID-funded Feed the Future, Liberia Agribusiness Development Activities, commonly known as LADA. The ministry has committed to providing LADA with crucial equipment, including 15 cassava mills and 15 fish feed mills.

A biotechnology company called Calysta, based in Menlo Park, California, is set to announce the first ever large-scale factory that uses microbes to turn natural gas – methane – into a high-protein food for the animals we eat. The factory which will be built in the US in collaboration with food-giant Cargill, will produce 200,000 tonnes of feed a year.

The topic of producing food and biomass that is \"grown in water instead of on the land\" is being explored at EuroTier 2016. The event is taking place in Germany at Hanover’s Exhibition Grounds from November 15 to 18, and aquaculture is the featured topic in Hall 24. The special \"Growth in the water\" showcase is illustrating the diversity of aquaculture, and fish, shellfish, algae, crustaceans and their feeds are on display.

AwF has formalized the working relationships between the different AwF Groups to ensure that there is consistency and cohesiveness in the worldwide operations of AwF as a charity. The new executive group is the ‘Aquaculture without Frontiers International Council’. The AwF International Council will be comprised of the global executive director and two members from each organizational board (USA, Australia and Latin America) on a rotation basis of three (3) years.

The F3 Fish-Free Challenges announced earlier this week that eight multi-national teams have qualified to participant in the global fish-free feed technology contest. Contestants from Thailand, Indonesia, China, South Africa, Australia, Pakistan, Myanmar (Burma), the Netherlands, Belgium, and the U.S. are advancing to the first sales reporting stage of the multi-stage contest to develop fish-free feed for the aquaculture industry. The F3 Fish-Free Feed Challenge launched in Nov. 2015, and is intended to help catalyze the development and sale of cost-competitive, viable aquafeeds free of fishmeal and fish oils.

Elanco’s novel in-feed treatment has been approved for the prevention and control of sea lice in salmon and trout in Chile. The approval follows the completion of a series of studies, demonstrating its efficacy against Caligus rogercresseyi, the most common louse species impacting salmonid farms in Chile. The study demonstrated that salmon treated with the medication remained below the Chilean industry regulated threshold for an extended period of time, compared to the untreated group, which exceeded the threshold five times in the same period. “Managing these parasites is a constant strain on salmon farmers – it is time consuming, cumbersome, and stressful to both fish and farmers. This option can help provide relief from sea lice management for an extended period of time, alleviating that stress.”

The Department of Commerce presented $260,112 to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), as part of the International Trade Administration\'s Market Development Cooperative Program (MDCP). The award will assist in the development of international standards for feed machinery, thus increasing trade exports through trade standardization. Funding will specifically be dedicated to education, outreach, training, preparation, coordination and travel support for U.S. feed machinery industry representatives engaged in international standards development.

The American Feed Industry Association is pleased to announce the addition of three new staff members: Codi Coulter (Communications Coordinator), Kori Chung (Legislative and Regulatory Assistant) and Erica Burson (Membership Assistant). \"As we continue to grow as an industry, and in membership, AFIA\'s internal team must also grow. In the past few months, we have hired three team members who add value to our communications, membership, and legislative and regulatory teams\' success.\"

BühlerAeroglide has appointed Paul Branson Director of Product Management. In this role Branson will focus on increasing quality, reducing production cycles, and developing advanced products and solutions. Most recently, Branson served as Product Manager for Aeroglide’s global industrial markets.