Each year, NIFES monitors Norwegian farmed fish, on assignment for the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. The purpose of the monitoring is to check that the farmed fish intended for human consumption does not contain undesirable substances in amounts that may be damaging to health, and to examine whether illegal pharmaceuticals are used in fish farming. This control system complies with the applicable EU guidelines.

A major, new, multidisciplinary project has recently been launched, the title of which is “The importance of nutrition for skin, intestine and gill health in salmon.” Nofima Scientist and Project Manager, Gerd Marit Berge, is working with a broad team of researchers on feed, nutrition, health and physiology to examine the connection between marine omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) in feed and the properties of barrier tissue. The aim of this project is to research whether levels of omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, together with modified zinc levels, affect the functioning and robustness of the skin, intestines and gills of salmon.

A Cooke Aquaculture barge carrying fish feed sank earlier this week off Brier Island in Digby County. The barge, described as \"small\" was found submerged early Wednesday morning near Cooke\'s fish farm, company spokeswoman Nell Halse said Saturday afternoon. That day, she said divers plugged the barge\'s outlets to prevent liquids from leaking into the water. No fish or feed are believed to have been lost, she said. No one was on board or injured in the process.

Fish farmers in Lagos State are presently leaving the business due to the increase in the price of fish feeds in the state. The prices, according to the farmers, have gone up by as high as 80 to 100 percent and that was forcing some of them to abandon their farms in search of other business ventures. A renowned fish farmer, Nurudeen Tiamiyu, said a 15kg bag of catfish feed produced in Nigeria was a few months ago sold at N6,000 but that it now sells for N9,000 while the imported ones that sold for N6,000 now goes for N11,000.

Hatchery production of bivalves requires unicellular algae-based feed. Producing the algae for feed can be costly, labour intensive, and tricky. In the future, biorefinery by-products may offer a viable alternative feed source, but further research is still needed. During the process of converting macroalgae into biofuel, significant biomass waste occurs. By employing enzymatic saccharification (breaking sucrose down into glucose and fructose), the theory goes, this waste could be converted into a single-cell detritus product - and potentially fed to farmed bivalves, such as oysters.

Lexington, Kentucky-based biotechnology firm Alltech is willing to invest in overseas algae production plants closer to its feed customers if demand for its products as a fish oil supplement grows, a company official said. Keith Filer, who serves as the company’s research coordinator for aquaculture described Alltech’s work on alternatives for fishmeal and fish oil undertaken over the past three years to a crowd of shrimp farmers at Ecuador’s AquaExpo 2016.

The European Probiotic Association (EPA) has announced the recipients of the Jules Tournut Probiotics Prize 2016. This year two awards have been delivered. The prize for Innovative Industrial Application was delivered to Ms. Marie Smedley for her Ph.D. project conducted at the University of Stirling (UK) on probiotic application for salmon nutrition, showing that probiotics can help limit skeletal deformities in fish.

Final implementation of the new Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) rule begins January 1, 2017, and many feed distributors still have questions and concerns about compliance, workload and inspections. GlobalVetLINK (GVL®) is hosting three free webinars to help educate feed distributors about recent VFD news, resources to aid in managing the VFD process, and tips for maintaining an audit trail to prove VFD compliance in the event of an FDA inspection.

Aquafeed producers in Chile facing probe by competition authority

Several ongoing projects funded by the EU are prioritizing the development of sustainable aquatic feeds and aquaculture technology. WISEFEED, which started this year, will examine the metabolism of farmed fish and develop an aquafeed that combines plant and marine ingredients in order to get the most efficient growth while lowering aquaculture’s dependency on wild fish. The NEMAQUA project is developing a sustainable solution to supplement or replace artemia, while the ECOFISH project is looking to convert conventional aquaculture farms into aquaponic ones.

Nofima researchers and Kontali Analyse have concluded that Norwegian fish farming sector production costs have risen by almost 90 per cent since 2005. These researchers’ report, which was presented at the Havbrukssamlingen aquaculture conference in Bergen, was commissioned by the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund (FHF). “The main drivers of this increase are the higher costs we see being incurred for feed, salmon louse and general fish health.”

A Freshwater Aquaculture Trials and Governance Project for Vanuatu was officially launched Monday by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Biodiversity, Matai Seremiah, at a ceremony at The Melanesian hotel in Port Vila aimed at combating the impacts of climate change. The project objectives are twofold: trial and test economically and environmentally sustainable small-scale community-based aquaculture model, integrating successes into a robust national aquaculture governance system; and upgrade the infrastructure of Tagabe Freshwater Aquaculture Center.

Located in the Pacific coastal-town of Colaco, Chile, the Cargill Innovation Center is geared specifically to improve health and wellbeing for salmon. The innovation center will serve as a research hub of experts from EWOS and Cargill, who will focus on developing functional fish diets and studying diseases that affect farmed salmon in Chile and other countries focused on aquaculture. Through the Cargill investment and the support of Corfo, a Chilean developmental agency, the innovation center will have more than 30 scientists and aquaculture experts.

A group of researchers has modified the nutritional profile of nut materials to increase protein and fit specifications for aquaculture feeds. They evaluated the nut mixture and found that trout fed a diet containing 5 percent fishmeal and 49 to 58 percent nut meal had survival and growth rates similar to trout fed a diet containing 55 percent fish meal. Furthermore, they determined the amount of protein and amino acids that was actually digestible and can support high levels of growth in rainbow trout whether it replaces fish meal or soy protein concentrate in the diet.

The Center for Aquaculture Technologies Canada recently received an approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Office of Biohazard Containment (OBCS) for its aquaculture research facility located in Souris, Prince Edward Island Canada. The facility is now approved to operate as an Aquatic Animal Pathogen Containment Level 3 (AQC3) biocontainment facility. This certification allows the Center for Aquaculture Technologies to expand its suite of services to include the conduct of in vivo and in vitro studies with imported aquatic animal pathogens.

The B.C. Salmon Farmer\'s Association has released a paper indicating that B.C. farm-raised salmon are among the most sustainable farm raised animals on the market. The paper, titled \"Comparing the Environmental Footprint of B.C.’s Farm-Raised Salmon to Other Food Protein Sources,\" examines the evidence from the literature on the environmental impact of ocean netpen farm-raised salmon versus other protein sources and, based on the evidence, develops estimates of the overall environmental footprint of farm-raised salmon in B.C. compared to production of other food proteins.

GlobalVetLINK (GVL®) has released a new Veterinary Feed Record (VFR) feature that offers veterinarians a tool for managing and tracking non-VFD, feed-grade antibiotics (ie. carbadox, bacitracin, tiamulin) in its FeedLINK® Electronic VFD System. Writing VFRs allows vets to simulate the VFD (Veterinary Feed Directive) process, providing a “practice” method to prepare for expanded VFDs coming January 1.

IFFO is proud to announce the finalists for the Leadership and Innovation Awards. The winners of the awards will be announced at the Gala Dinner of the 56th IFFO Annual Conference, held in Bangkok. This year’s applicants came from a wide cross section of IFFO’s membership, showing examples of success from both small and large producers and traders from across the globe.

Shortly before the opening of the 2016 World Nutrition Forum in Vancouver, BIOMIN Managing Director, Dr Hannes Binder outlined the feed additive producer’s ambition to become the market leader in the phytogenic feed additive (PFA) space by 2020. “Producers are looking to get more out of their feed, reduce antibiotics, shrink the environmental footprint and enhance gut performance. These all point to feed efficiency, and that’s where innovative phytogenic feed additives come into play.”

Nelson\'s Cawthron Institute is carrying out a groundbreaking open ocean shellfish farming project intended to boost aquaculture exports by tens of millions of dollars. Led by Cawthron Institute aquaculture scientist Kevin Heasman, the five year project recently received NZD 6 million from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Stuff reported. Heasman said the project aimed to revolutionize the current open ocean farming structures to make them more efficient and low maintenance.