The continually increasing demand for fish farming is driving a shortage in fishmeal supply to the aquaculture industry. As a consequence, fishmeal prices are rapidly increasing and challenging the aquafeed industry to seek economically viable and environmentally sustainable alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil.
This quest for alternative ingredients, particularly protein sources, is of utmost importance, especially for supporting the shrimp aquaculture industry. Shrimp is already a heavily traded commodity and its production through intensive aquaculture is expected to continue to notably expand in the coming years.
Pitfalls of plant-based ingredients on feed digestibility
Plant-based ingredients are good candidates to partially replace fishmeal in aquafeeds because they are largely available, fairly economical, and provide a good and reliable source of protein. However, the inclusion of crop-based feedstuffs in shrimp feed is followed by numerous challenges such as reduced feed acceptability and digestibility.
Vegetable protein sources, like soy, sunflower, rapeseed, among others, show high content in fibres and include anti-nutritional factors (ANFs). ANFs are biological compounds that reduce nutrient utilisation and feed intake, and comprise molecules including proteinase inhibitors, saponins, and antivitamins alkaloids.
These compounds can be deleterious for shrimp growth as they inactivate digestive enzymes and decrease feed digestibility (Bora, 2014). Indeed, both high fibre content and ANFs negatively affect feed intake, FCR and, ultimately decrease shrimp growth performance.
A highly digestible feed additive to supplement low fishmeal diets
In order to address the limitations of replacing fishmeal with plant-based ingredients in shrimp feeds, Phileo Lesaffre developed the feed additive Prosaf® – a premium yeast fraction obtained from the primary culture of a proprietary Saccharomyces cerevisiae baker’s yeast strain.
The feed additive Prosaf is produced using a standardised process: after fermentation, yeasts are autolysed through thermal treatment, which is followed by a centrifugation step that separates the cell extract from the cell wall. The latter is discarded, and the inner cell wall fraction is isolated to be subsequently used as a premium and high-quality soluble product.
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The Aquaculturists
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