White Dog Labs announced that independent testing by the Center for Aquaculture Technologies in Canada (CATC) has demonstrated the potential benefit of ProTyton to shrimp farming – initial studies doubled post larval survival rate, and increased weight gain by 50%.
WDL has developed and scaled up ProTyton, an anaerobically produced Single Cell Protein ingredient that exhibits upwards of 85wt% crude protein and over 40wt% essential amino acids. The product is highly digestible and performed well in multiple aquaculture diets, and is now being evaluated by major aquafeed companies.
"We are happy to announce these remarkable results, which were demonstrated through a close collaboration with CATC,” said WDL's CEO, Bryan Tracy.
“We initially tested ProTyton incorporation in salmon feed and preliminary results indicate that we can reduce the overall cost of the diet while maintaining high amino acid digestibility values,” said Dr André Dumas, Director of Fish Nutrition at CATC. “We accomplished this by replacing half of the 20% fishmeal in the control diet with a smaller amount of ProTyton to balance the crude protein and essential amino acids levels.” Dumas added, “we then decided to test ProTyton’s health benefits with post larval shrimp, due to the high variability in the survival rate of shrimp in this phase of their growth.”
In preliminary 4-week shrimp feeding trials, ProTyton inclusion at 10 and 15% (with a single replicate per treatment) doubled survival rate to over 80% compared to a commercial reference diet, and increased weight gain by over 50%. Dr. Dumas commented, “We are planning to further validate these results with a larger scale trial, but current outcomes certainly exceed expectations. Indications are that ProTyton can be an excellent ingredient for enhancing shrimp survival, growth and health.”
ProTyton is currently being produced using a 5000-gallon fermenter at WDL’s Delaware pilot facility. The first ProTyton plant is being designed by AdvanceBio, with shipments expected in Q4, 2019.
"We are honored to work with CATC,” said Tracy. “Their knowledge and experience expertly guide our development efforts, and their practical expertise inform smoother transition to evaluation by major aquafeed companies.”
