Aquaculture UK 2014 see Novartis award presented at gala dinner

Today International Aquafeed attended a series of six conference at Aquaculture UK 2014, hosted by Novartis, featuring talks by PhD and Masters students from Scottish universities. 

Their research touched upon important aquacultural topics and all were competing for the chance to visit Prince Edward Island, Canada, the home of Novartis' fish vaccination centre.

And IAF can announce the winner of the Aquaculture UK 2014 Gala Dinner and prize giving ceremony which has just come to an end! By coincidence it was the presenter we had listened to and decided was the most appropriate for us to report on here. 

The winner is Ms Marie Smedley and we present here a brief synopsis of her presentation which was a particular highlight for us.

Entitled 'Nutrition as a tool to improve performance in Triploid Atlantic salmon (salmo salar) in freshwater and seawater production' - by Marie Smedley, Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling.

Marie is completing a PhD study into Atlantic salmon Triploids. Sponsoring this study were Biomar and Marine Harvest Scotland. 

Triploids are sterile fish which have three chromosomes in their genetic make up and can be seen as sustainable to farm commercially. The fish are still not perfect because they display reduced tolerance to sub-optimal environments, she told her audience. 

However, she understands that it is not a sustainable solution in terms of cost to farm on a larger scale.

Marie believes that Triploids and phosphorus to be a winning combination; she explained to us that their phosphorous requirement must be met from the diet and cannot be met by freshwater or seawater environments. 

Bactocell - a product from Lallemand - was also used and had a positive effect on mitigating malformation development of vertebrae and jaw growth and was used after phosphorus.

Triploids in the study grew faster in general as opposed to the diploid salmon. The growth was marked after the first four months, then it was 20-30 percent faster in freshwater and 10 percent faster in seawater, compared to normal diploid fish and normal conditions

Tomorrow is the final day of Aquaculture UK 2014 at the MacDonald Resort in Aviemore. It's been an eventful day in this beautiful part of Scotland!

 

 The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd.