Highly putrefied poultry litter being used as feed in fish tanks in Andhra Pradesh is generating a toxic biocycle. The litter, when added to fish tanks, contaminates the water and increases the fluctuation of biological oxygen demand (BOD). It also accentuates the ectoparasite problem, leading to ulcers in fish. To control the parasite, fish farmers use highly toxic pesticides which penetrate into the biocycle posing a serious health hazard to the end consumer.

The State Government has introduced changes to aquaculture regulations in a move to simplify regulatory requirements, streamline operations and reduce red-tape for South Australia's AUD 225 million aquaculture industry. South Australia’s aquaculture industry, which produces almost half of the state’s total seafood output, farms some of the most sought after seafood in the world including southern bluefin tuna, Pacific oysters, yellowtail kingfish and greenlip abalone.

In ongoing efforts to prepare animal food organizations for the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the three leading animal food industry trade associations hosted the first-ever Food Safety Preventive Control Alliance (FSPCA) lead instructor training for the preventive controls for animal food on July 26-29. \"FDA\'s rules implementing FSMA require that at least one preventive controls qualified individual be determined for each facility. The PCQI lead instructor program educates those identified individuals who, upon successful completion, will be able to train others,\" said the three associations.

Black Water Nano, LLC (dba Black Water Aquaculture), recently announced that they have developed a purely mechanical and cost-effective process to dramatically reduce and eliminate ammonia and nitrite contents in RAS fish and shrimp farming systems. During the course of pilot studies, the product was effective at reducing ammonia and nitrite levels in both shrimp and fish RAS systems (that were already utilizing bio-floc and bio-filtration systems respectively) to undetectable levels within a week of installation with no indication of ill effects (including gas bubble trauma) on the specimen shrimp and fish.

Bakkafrost recently released a statement of non-association with whaling, in which they declared that the Havsbrun fish feed they use does not contain whale meat. \"Havsbrun does not use pilot whale or any other marine mammals in the production of feed. Havsbrun feed does not contain any of the following ingredients: antibiotics, hormones, melamine, growth promoters, cantaxantin, salmon meal offal or waste from any other farmed species, and blood meal.\"

The Malaysian DoF and WorldFish recently signed an agreement establishing the Technical Committee on Research Collaboration to promote the sustainable development of aquaculture and fisheries in Malaysia. The agreement formalizes the existing collaboration between DoF and WorldFish, which began when WorldFish established its headquarters in Penang, Malaysia, in 2000. “This partnership will help DoF and WorldFish exchange constructive views, to further deepen and strengthen cooperation in aquaculture and fisheries in Malaysia.”

The Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA) in India has released a call for Expressions of Interest (PDF) to supply pelletized shrimp feed for a culture demonstration project that has been initiated under funding from NFDB. The purpose of the project is to investigate the performance of Indigenous Indian White shrimp in high density culture. Different stocks across Indian coast are being compared for their culture potential to mark the base line for the genetic improvement program. Researchers are in need of 35 tons of quality shrimp feed, phased over a period of four months, to carry out the work.

The National Aquaculture Group of Saudi Arabia has released a new video highlighting their 200 square kilometer farm. \"Producing our own feed for the shrimp and fish is essential to ensuring the quality of our products and a key element in vertical integration. Our feed mill produces more than 10 tons per hour of diets formulated from the highest quality raw materials.\"

The reduction of antibiotic use in salmon production by half over a two-year span is the main aim of a new project just undertaken by a subset of Chile’s aquaculture sector. The endeavor, called the Pincoy project, involves prominent aquaculture producers in Chile including Skrettig, AquaGen/Blue Genomics, Centrovet, Pharmaq, Cermaq, Blumar and Ventisqueros, reported Economia y Negocios. Sernapesca and SalmonChile have also lent their support for the project.

The European Food Safety Authority Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain assessed the risks to consumers from malachite green in food, particularly in fish, fish products and crustaceans. Specifically, the European Commission asked EFSA to evaluate whether a reference value of 2 micrograms (μg) of malachite green per kilogram of food would adequately protect public health. EFSA’s experts concluded that it is unlikely that exposure to food contaminated with malachite green up to 2μg/kg would represent a health concern.

Together with Copa-Cogeca, the EU Feed Manufacturers Federation FEFAC announced the publication and endorsement by the EU Commission of their EU code of good labelling practice for compound feed for food producing animals. The Code was jointly developed by Copa-Cogeca and FEFAC to clarify requirements set out in the EU feed labelling regulation and give practical advice to compound feed manufacturers on how to draw up a label and to farmers so that they have all the right information to make informed choices and can use the product correctly.

The IFFO RS Governance Board has ratified a proposal for ‘Version 2.0’ of the IFFO RS Responsible Supply Standard. Many of the proposed changes aim to improve the Standard’s ability to tackle fisheries of multiple species and fisheries where less information is available. It is hoped that Version 2.0 will promote more responsible management in such fisheries and ultimately further reduce the environmental impact of the fishmeal and fish oil manufacturing process. The document will be open for Public Consultation via the IFFO RS website for a period of 30 days beginning from 8th August 2016.

Trends show that markets are increasingly demanding certifiably produced shrimp. Most aquaculture certifications including Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), and Global GAP require that at least 50 percent fish meal and fish oil for feed production must be derived from certified sources. Research shows that soy has replaced fishmeal as a greater percentage of aquafeed, and so it is estimated that the demand for sustainable, responsibly produced soy will continue to increase.

Raub, a district in the Malaysian city of Pahang, is set to benefit from a new aquaculture and agriculture center, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) earlier this year. The MOU was signed by integrated water treatment specialist, Ronser Bio-Tech, Casabrina Vacation Villas, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and Japan’s Asia Water Business Consultant (AWBC) to build the new center at the resort in Raub.

The First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance is calling on the federal government to stop expansion of fish farming and include First Nations in its efforts to protect wild salmon. \"Open-net pen farming threatens the health of wild salmon stocks,\" chairman Bob Chamberlin said, \"and many farms were established without adequately consulting First Nations. We have about one third of the total [fish-farming] industry in our territories and it’s really troubling.”

The governments of South Korea and Iran have agreed to hold talks on fishery co-operation including setting up a joint fish farming venture. The two countries have already held preliminary discussions and the news follows a trade show in Tehran in May, where 80 Korean companies were represented.

School lectures paired with practical work at Aller Aqua Research has enabled Torben Nissen to graduate the Fish Worker course as the best student in Northern Germany in 2016, 1 year faster than calculated. Torben has now been employed as a research assistant at Aller Aqua Research, supporting the existing staff in the running and continuous growth of the research center.

The Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) is further strengthening the industry representation on its Board with two new appointments – Ben Hadfield, Managing Director of Marine Harvest Scotland Ltd, and Paddy Campbell, Managing Director of BioMar Ltd. “SAIC is fortunate to have such a committed and industry-experienced Board. The appointment of Ben and Paddy consolidates this further, bringing new perspectives to the table and helping cement SAIC’s position as a driver of industry-led innovation.”

In 2015, NIAS statistics revealed that Nigeria hit 5.3 million metric tonnes of animal feeds with the following breakdown: egg, 3.1 million metric tonnes; chicken meat, 1.08 million metric tonnes; aquaculture, 647,750 metric tonnes; pork, 265,000 metric tonnes; milk, 53,000 metric tonnes; beef, 41,250 metric tonnes; pet foods, 35,000 metric tonnes respectively.

Officials from the Centre for Aquaculture Testing were dismissed after an investigation revealed that since 2013 they had forged certificates of aquaculture products, some of which were harmful for consumers’ health. The investigators found that the employees involved in the scam had falsified documents that allowed more than 800 substandard products of 70 companies to be sold in the market.