Ridley Corporation Limited announced that it has executed a Novacq™ Research Alliance Agreement with CSIRO, and has also extended its existing Novacq™ license agreement with the CSIRO.
Novacq™ is a natural prawn feed ingredient additive that is derived from a marine microbial process which involved over 10 years of research and development by Australia’s CSIRO. Novacq™ acts as a metabolic stimulant when included in prawn feed diets. It increases the prawns food intake and permits the animal to utilize the feed more efficiently. Novacq™ can also be used to help replace fishmeal in prawn diets.
Strong progress has been made over the last 24 months regarding Ridley’s applied Research and Development efforts, with prawn feed product trials including the NovacqTM ingredient consistently demonstrating growth rate improvements in the vicinity of 40% or more. In addition to the improvement in feed conversion rates from accelerated growth, the trials are exhibiting improvements in animal well-being via enhanced resistance to the challenge of viral/bacterial attacks and thereby increasing survival rates.
Ridley already had a twenty-year license agreement that covered the territories of Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, which has now been extended to include the whole world excluding China and Vietnam, which are already licensed by CSIRO to other parties. Ridley does however, retain its entitlement to market and sell Australian Made diets incorporating NovacqTM into China and Vietnam.
The LA scope has also been extended to cover improvements to the NovacqTM Technology and new applications, including potentially using NovacqTM as a feed additive for species other than prawn and crustaceans, that may be developed during the course of the Alliance Agreement.
In conjunction, Ridley has worked in close collaboration with the CSIRO and the two have entered into an Alliance Agreement with the key objective of conducting collaborative research that will maximize the development of new NovacqTM applications beyond the existing application for prawn and crustaceans. Under the terms of the Alliance Agreement, Ridley will contribute annual cash funding of A$1 million to CSIRO for the parties to work together for the purpose of further advancing collaborative research relating to the existing NovacqTM technology.
An annual program of research will be established, which will be designed to target the potential applications most likely to improve the application of NovacqTM as a stock feed additive potentially in a range of species.
Ridley CEO Tim Hart commented “We have been working closely with CSIRO to secure the unlicensed prawn (and other crustacean) territories for Novacq™, and a key factor in committing to Ridley has been the extent of our investment and progress at both Yamba in New South Wales, and Chanthaburi in Thailand. We are transporting the technology and knowhow developed at Yamba to Thailand, where there are significant opportunities to scale up our production activity in a low cost, ideal climate environment. The extension of our license agreement provides us with the rights to market and sell Novacq™ into the remaining world prawn markets, of which Ecuador and India are the two most prominent producers.”
“Through the strategic research alliance with the CSIRO, we will be looking to develop a comprehensive platform of Novacq™ data. We believe there is a reasonable likelihood that Novacq™ can have a positive application in other species, not only in the most likely application for fin fish, but also potentially for land-based animals. Improvement in growth and survival rates at a fraction of what we are seeing in prawns, could similarly revolutionize the poultry industry for example, where very small improvements in Feed Conversion Ratios lead to significant commercial returns due to the sheer volume of birds being processed on a daily basis.”
Dr. Mat Cook, CSIRO Aquaculture Research Director commented “CSIRO views this opportunity as a perfect example of our commitment to innovation. We are excited to be partnering with a like-minded local organization in Ridley to take Australian science to the world.”
NovacqTM is currently being produced at Ridley’s Yamba, NSW operating site and has been included in feed for prawn trials at Mackay. In addition, sufficient quantities of NovacqTM have been shipped to Thailand to be included in new prawn feed diets manufactured by the feedmill in which Ridley acquired a 49% interest last year.
