The Aquaculturists: September 2018

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Kaeser Kompression company profile

Kaeser Kompression provides products, services and complete systems for supplying production and work processes with quality compressed air. The system solutions comprise compressed air generation and treatment and are designed for optimal overall efficiency. The company was founded in 1919 and is represented throughout the world by a comprehensive network of branch offices and strong partners.

Visit the Kaeser Kompression website, HERE.

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

For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news

Friday, September 28, 2018

Maturing ROV technology: The NEW Micro ROV standard

by Eduardo Moreno, CEO Seadrone, Palo Alto, USA

Offshore aquaculture is considered a very dangerous and strenuous occupation. Subsea inspections are currently one of the most frequent aquaculture operations. A tear in a net in can cause a farm to lose its fish stock which directly affects its bottom line. Farms are also sanctioned by regulatory agencies and insurance companies for fish escapes.

Farms are mandated to inspect their structures to minimise fish escapes, which threaten the wild fish ecosystem. The primary consequence is farmed fish transferring diseases and pathogens like sea lice, genetic impact because of interbreeding, and also competition for food.

To help solve this issue, remotely operated vehicles (ROV) can be utilised. ROV operations can help reduce human risk in offshore aquaculture operations and consequently lower an operator’s liability. ROV and diving operations will be compared addressing the main strengths and weaknesses of each.

A huge opportunity to make fish farming safer
Humans are not biologically engineered to spend long hours underwater, and ROV technology has been used for many years, but this technology is still in an early adoption phase, similar to where aerial drones were a decade ago. There is a huge opportunity to make fish farming safer and more efficient all at once. SeaDrone believes that mature hardware and connected software will begin to disrupt this industry. SeaDrone can help farm operators gather more holistic inspection data and pair it with intuitive analytics, which in turn will allow them to drive actionable results and lower their insurance costs.

Today, inspections are highly dependent on manual labour. A three-to-four man dive group with highly specialised diving equipment can be contracted by farms for up to £23,000 a day. On average they can cover eight fish pens per day. Dive groups need to have a professional diving licence and receive specialised training to comply with regulations given by the authorities. Hired commercial divers are often inexperienced in fish farming and often do not report critical information to farm managers, an issue ROV’s do not have.

Tools to replace divers
An advantage of using a diver is the degree of physical interaction that they can have with the environment. They can repair a net or mooring right away. Inspection ROVs are beginning to close the gap with some of these tasks. Small vehicles can be fitted with mort retrieval shovels to remove dead fish from farm nets and other specialised tools.

ROV systems are also typically easier to deploy and can stay underwater for longer than a diver, but in the past they have required significant skill to operate and were expensive to maintain.

SeaDrone Inspector is a powerful and affordable subsea robot, which simplifies underwater inspections. It has industrial grade construction, smooth manoeuvrability, and powerful lumen lights. Everything centres around a unified main electronic board meaning SeaDrone designed a vehicle that is leaner, more reliable and efficient, but also easier to maintain.

Read the full article in the International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.

Wynveen International company profile

Wynveen International B.V. is a leading Dutch company, specialising in the design, manufacture and installation of complete mills for the animal feed industry.

With a knowledgeable, experienced and enthusiastic team, the company focuses on the development and construction of high-quality innovative equipment and installations for animal feed, aqua feed and pet food manufacture.

In addition to turnkey projects, their core products are hammer mills, ribbon and paddle mixers, double-shaft paddle mixers, rotary sifters and coaters for liquids (vacuum and atmospheric).

Approximately 80 percent of their products are exported. In order to guarantee its high quality standards, Wynveen assembles and tests all its key equipment in-house.

Wynveen always aims to fully understand customer requirements, working in partnership with customers and using all their accumulated knowledge and experience to deliver the optimum, often highly innovative, technological solution.

That’s why their company motto is: ‘Versatility in feed processing’.

Visit the company website, HERE.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Black-spotted frog commercial farming in China

by Liu Fenglei, He Zhuliu, Dong Qiufen and Zhang Song, Guangzhou Nutriera Biotechnology Co., Ltd, China

The black-spotted frog (Pelophylax nigromaculatus) is an amphibious animal of the species Ranidae and the genus Pelophylax. It is a beneficial species with economic and scientific research values, and it has been listed in the IUCN red list of Threatened Species since 2004. Therefore, it is not allowed to catch wild black-spotted frogs in China.

Black-spotted frogs have been studied in China for a long time, and it is recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medical. As the meat has high protein and low fat, the southerners even depict it as delicious as chicken’s meat and it has been a popular dish for the people.

In addition to its nutritional value, it has some medicinal effects such as improving liver and kidney functions, promoting body immunity, anti-aging properties, beneficial lung functions and eyesight etc. In addition, extracted frog oil can be used as a regulator of human body metabolism and beauty.

The black-spotted frog is mainly distributed in China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia. It can adapt to wide geographical environments, and can be found in different habitats including meadows, leafy, mixed pine, broadleaved forests, bush land, and even deserts.

Furthermore, the species is also present in suitable modified habitats. Within these, its inhabits are various types of stagnant water bodies, including river pools, channels, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, swamps, ditches and paddy fields. Chinese scientists have achieved t full-scale artificial farming and have formulated feed technology for this species. The black-spotted frog industry has been developing rapidly. It’s widely farmed in more than 10 provinces of China, and it has become a common aquaculture product.

Read the full article in the International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.

FishFarmFeeder company profile

FishFarmFeeder is a company founded in 2008 that only manufactures aquaculture feeding systems with a complete catalogue of solutions.

Feeders can be customised for each fish farm and species:

- Centralised Feeders
- Hatchery Feeders
- Feed Barges
- Cannon Feeders

FishFarmFeeder can customise their feeders adapting the performance to each fish farmer.

Visit FishFarmFeeder website, HERE.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

26/09/2018: Gael Force reveals plans for international expansion

Gael Force Group has revealed its plans to expand its business overseas with the supply of a full established range of marine equipment, technology and services to Atlantic Canada’s aquaculture market.

The supplier is committing to inwardly invest in the industry and is actively seeking to establish a new base to support the dedicated servicing of fish farms in the province where large growth in salmon production is currently being projected.

Moorings anchor

The move forms a major part of Gael Force’s current strategic plan which involves entering into overseas aquaculture markets. This year, the company has been conducting a series of comprehensive market research visits into the current and future opportunities on the eastern side of Canada.

Gael Force will supply and service customers with a full and established product range, including pen and barge moorings, plastic fish pens, concrete and steel feed barges, offshore feeding systems and pellet detection software, and underwater technology including cameras and lighting.

The unveiling of the plan coincides with the Group’s involvement in its first major conference and trade show in the market at Cold Harvest in St. John’s Newfoundland which opens this Wednesday 26th September. Group Managing Director Stewart Graham will speak at the conference during two sessions, firstly offering an insight into the strategy planning for Scottish Aquaculture industry’s vision for growth, then giving a detailed overview about Gael Force Group’s offering to the market. They will also be demonstrating their established range of equipment at the conference’s trade show, including their revolutionary new SeaFeed Pellet Detection software which has been developed in-house and is currently catching the attention of its customers in Scotland.

Gael Force's marine equipment, technology and services heading to Atlantic Canada’s aquaculture market

Speaking ahead of the conference, Marketing Manager Marc Wilson said, “Our visits to Atlantic Canada have revealed a commitment to aquaculture with a real appetite to grow the industry substantially. Every person we have spoken to has welcomed the prospect of Gael Force making an inward investment in Newfoundland. We are highly confident in our ability to provide a trusted range of equipment and technology that will meet the needs of producers in the Atlantic Provinces and enable them to safely and securely meet the highest standards of fish husbandry.”

He added, “We fully understand the need for us as a supplier to have a highly skilled and dedicated service team on the ground in Canada to be ready to respond to the specific needs of those customers, and that is something we are totally prepared to commit to.”

Read more HERE.

Black-spotted frog

by Rebecca Sherratt, Production editor, International Aquafeed

The black-spotted frog is an Eastern variety of frog, native to Japan, Korea and China, alongside parts of Russia.

It has been noted by scientists that tadpoles of the black-spotted frog were first introduced into the Chinese ecosystem in 1959 – 1961 in the Hubei province, an area which they now densely populate. These amphibians can often be distinguished by their lime green and grey-brown colouration, with a unique pattern of black spots down the flanks of their bodies. Male black-spotted frogs can grow to around 70-mm long, whilst the females are slightly larger at approximately 77mm.

The habitats which the black-spotted frog inhabits can vary greatly. These amphibians can reside in water bodies in areas as varied as meadows, bushlands and even deserts (this is mainly in Turkmenia.) Black-spotted frogs prosper in rivers, lakes, channels, swamps and rice fields, proving to be willing to accommodate almost any body of water as a potential home. These frogs do, however, often live alone, away from other species of frogs, such as its close relative the marsh frog (rana ridibunda).

Despite being considered a rather common species of frog, in China especially, their distribution is rather patchy. Black-spotted frogs tend to occur in very dense, large groups. These frogs hibernate for a rather large portion of their lives in stagnant water; from late September through to November, and again from February to May.

Alongside eating extruded feed, black-spotted frogs like to indulge in eating spiders, terrestrial insects and a variety of invertebrates. On rare occasions they will also eat fish fry and perhaps other amphibians, being opportunistic hunters who are willing to eat whatever prey they may encounter. Their sticky tongues help them keep a grip on struggling prey, such as crickets and grasshoppers. Black-spotted tadpoles consume mainly plants, such as algae. Black-spotted frog feeding does not cease during the breeding season.

Black-spotted frogs skin has anti-microbial properties, containing peptides that give it a barrier of protection against a wide variety of potential attacks and diseases. This also means that bacteria, yeast and other microorganisms that may settle on the black-spotted frog can’t grow and cause health problems for them.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and their red list of threatened species classes the black-spotted frog as ‘near threatened’, recommending that the harvesting and farming of black-spotted frogs should be placed under restrictions and strictly monitored to ensure that they do not drop into the category of ‘vulnerable’.

Read the full article in the International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.

Wenger company profile

From small-town entrepreneur to worldwide leader. With a little ingenuity and a lot of hard work, brothers Joe and Louis Wenger founded Wenger Mixing Company in a small Kansas (USA) town in 1935. They went on to design a machine that blended molasses with dry feedstuffs and produced pellets in 1948.

Theirs was the first extrusion cooking system and the basic technology for all commercial extruders used today. The Wenger brothers' novel idea created a worldwide industry. And, seventy-five years later, Wenger Manufacturing, Inc. is still a family-owned business committed to groundbreaking innovation in the extrusion market.

Visit the website HERE.

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

For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

The Seaweed Standard: Ensuring sustainability for years to come

by Rebecca Sherratt, International Aquafeed, UK

Seaweed is the foundation of the ocean and marine food chain, critical to ocean habitats and often serving as nursery areas for many aquatic species around the globe.

Over the past few decades the use of seaweed by humans has also drastically increased. 82 percent of farmed seaweed being used for human consumption. 12.2 percent of seaweed farmed is used in cosmetics, whilst 2.9 percent is used for animal feed, and the final 2.6 percent in agriculture.

Due to this intense increase in demand for seaweed, most natural seaweed growing in the oceans, free from human activity, has now been replaced by monitored farms. The past sixty years have seen a shift, wherein 96 percent of seaweed we now use is gathered from farming operations, whilst only four percent comes from wild harvests.

Seaweed concentration is spread throughout 33 countries, China being its main producer (harvesting 54% of all seaweed), alongside Canada and North America. The seaweed industry is certainly an immense one, bringing in US $5.65 billion and over 25 million tonnes of seaweed annually. The main importers of seaweed include Brazil, Russia and India, while the primary exporters include Finland, Sweden and Russia.

With such a vast quantity of seaweed being processed and harvested per year, seaweed farmers are feeling the pressure to produce even more of the popular algae. But such a rapid turnover means that the seaweed we harvest isn’t always of the best quality, nor produced in the correct manner.

Saving the Seaweed
To safeguard seaweed, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) are here. These two non-profit organisations have begun a certification scheme, named The Seaweed Standard, to transform the seaweed market into a sustainable one. These two companies collaborated to ensure the protection of marine life and the responsible production of seaweed. The MSC specifically specialises in marine life, with the aim to keep the oceans teeming and populated. The ASC’s primary goal is to minimise the negative impacts aquaculture has on the environment. Both also aim to contribute to the health of the world’s aquatic ecosystems by promoting, recognising and rewarding environmentally sustainable and socially responsible use of seaweed resources through certification. Focussing on all seaweeds, marine and freshwater algae, alongside macroalgae and microalgae, the standard applies globally to all locations and all scales of operations.

Read the full article in the International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.

Dinnissen company profile

With over 150 permanent employees and an extensive network of agents all over the world, Dinnissen is a global player in the feed, food, pharma and chemical sectors.

They are always looking for new and innovative solutions for complete processes, system integrations or standard products – many of which they develop, test and produce in-house!

Visit the website HERE.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Bühler Aeroglide announces new appointments for sales and process engineering

Bühler Aeroglide, a global leader in thermal process engineering and technology for food, feed, and industrial markets has appointed Tom Barber, vice president of capital sales, and Jason Pintuff, director of process engineering.

Image credit: Joi Ito on Flickr
(CC BY 2.0)

Read more on the International Aquafeed website, HERE.

Boosting the aquaculture business to the next level

A new innovative software tool for targeting an improved environmental footprint and optimising processes in fish farming may soon be able to boost the aquaculture business to a new level.

Image credit: Shirokazan on Flickr
(CC BY 2.0)

This is the aim of a new project launch by leaders in aquaculture innovation in Denmark that combines a higher degree of knowledge sharing, better research and optimised production follow up.

Read more on the International Aquafeed website, HERE.

Latin American and Caribbean Aquaculture 2018

The Latin American and Caribbean Aquaculture 2018 - LACQUA18 and the VIII Colombian Congress of Aquaculture - VIII CCA are close to taking place in Bogotá, Colombia at the Agora International Convention Centre from October 23 to 26, 2018.

You are invited to be part of this important event that has an academic program in different areas of aquaculture and a commercial exhibit with national and international companies specialised in the commercialisation of supplies and services for the aquaculture sector.

Read more on the International Aquafeed website, HERE.

Effective control of Salmonella in feed

by Karen De Ridder, Business Development Manager Preservation & Functional Ingredients, Nutriad, Belgium

The control of Salmonella in the animal industry is one of the major challenges. Salmonella is found everywhere and can survive, even at low moisture levels, for a long time. Due to the complexity to control Salmonella, several measurements need to be taken to reduce contamination, growth and survival of Salmonella in feed.

A ubiquitous threat
Salmonella is found everywhere and can survive, even at low moisture levels, for a long time. Due to the complexity to control Salmonella, several measurements need to be taken to reduce contamination, growth and survival of Salmonella in feed.

Salmonella are one of the leading pathogens associated with reduced animal performance and food-borne illness in consumers. Contaminated feeds and critical feed materials such as oil seed meals and animal derived protein meals are among the major pathways through which Salmonella enter the animal food production. The link between animal feeds and both human and animal salmonellosis was already established many years ago. However, as Salmonella are ubiquitous and persistent in a wide range of materials, they are difficult to tackle with only a single control measure. Thermal processing is one of the important measures to kill bacteria in feed but may not completely eliminate Salmonella (re)contamination. In many cases, a combination of heat treatment and chemical treatment is used to kill bacteria.

Control of Salmonella in feed
Salmonella is very difficult to control, and every possible tool needs to be used in the prevention programme. Therefore, in general three different strategies are combined to eliminate Salmonella presence in animal feeds. At first, it is important to minimise contamination of ingredients and/or feeds. Secondly, measures should be taken to prevent bacteria from propagating in the feed. A third approach should focus on trying to kill off pathogens as much as possible.

Read the full article in the International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.

Ottevanger Milling Engineers company profile

Ottevanger Milling Engineers is a leading European company in the design and manufacture of equipment and complete installations for the grain-processing and mixed-feed industries.

Food producers throughout the world use these installations to produce food for people and animals. In modern, well-equipped plants in Aalten and Moerkapelle (The Netherlands) Ottevanger's specialists use the latest technologies to design and manufacture a comprehensive range of products.

Computer-controlled plants – anywhere in the world – are provided with on-line technical support from these plants. In its design of any installation Ottevanger takes into account the strictest environmental regulations and safety requirements.

There are, for example, always adequate facilities for air purification as well as sound and heat insulation. A lot of attention is also devoted to hygiene through the use of stainless steel and special coatings.

Thanks to its expert knowledge and expertise, amassed throughout its over one hundred years' experience, Ottevanger is the ideal partner for the implementation of your project.

Visit the Ottevanger website, HERE.

Friday, September 21, 2018

Black Soldier Fly: A future for Tilapia feed?

by Maquart P.O., Murray F., Leschen W., Netwon R., Little D.C., Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK and Corresponding author, Pierre-Olivier Maquart p.j.maquart@stir.ac.uk

With the increase of the fishmeal and soybean prices over the last decade, insect proteins have become a focus of research into novel alternative livestock feed ingredients.

While several insect species have been investigated, the Black Soldier Fly (BSF; Hermetia illucens) remains one of the most credible options.

BSF, generally considered as a non-pest species, is distributed almost worldwide since the Second World War and is not known to carry any pathogenic agents, unlike the common housefly (Musca domestica).

The larvae can grow quickly and have an excellent feed rate. They can consume 25-500 mg of fresh matter/larva/day and feed on a wide range of substrates ranging from manures to food waste. A grow-out cycle takes 15 days to an average larva weight of 0.25g under optimal conditions (30oC) and the substrate/ waste load reduced by up to 70 percent (dry matter basis). The maggots have also been shown to remove pathogenic bacteria, reduce waste odours and to inhibit nuisance housefly oviposition; all valuable secondary sanitation outcomes.

The larvae have a high nutritional value; contingent on the substrate they were bred on, with crude protein levels ranging from 28 to 48 percent, and lipid levels from 12 to 42 percent. With the exception of omega-3 fatty acid, the lipid profile is broadly similar to fish meal and potential exists to augment fatty acid through the use of an appropriate feeds e.g. fish-offal. The essential amino acid profile of the insect meal meets the broad requirements of tilapias simplifying dietary formulation requirements.

Tilapia are widely cultured in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world and constitute the third largest group of farmed finfish after carps and salmonids. To date only four studies have been published on the evaluation of BSF meal on tilapia growth and production outcomes.

Read the full article in the International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.

Leiber company profile

Now with more than 140 employees, with each one a specialist in his or her domain, Leiber has a well-proven team in a company following a clear strategy for more than 50 years: working with values.

“What makes us unique? We focus on what we know best. Yeast. Production on the highest level of quality. Latest technology. New findings from science and research. The performance of a team of specialists.

This is what defines Leiber´s strategic orientation. This is what makes us truly entrepreneurial”, as explained on the Leiber website.

“The markets´ requirements are changing - we are able to follow. This is how we became one of the leading manufacturers of specialised yeast products”.

Visit the website HERE.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Upcoming LACQUA18 event releases new details

The Latin American and Caribbean Aquaculture 2018 - LACQUA18 is close to take place in Bogotá, Colombia at the Agora International Convention Center from October 23 to 26, 2018

LACQUA18 will be a important aquaculture event taking place next month
Image Credit: Thomas Quine

This important event covers different areas of aquaculture, and LACQUA18 have recently revealed some of the companies and individuals who will be present for the event.

Dr. Albert G.J. Tacon, the Director of Aquatic Farms Ltd in Hawaii, will be delivering talks at the LACQUA18. He currently serves as Scientific Advisor on Aquatic Resources to the International Foundation for Science, Stockholm, Sweden (since 1998), is Editor in Chief of Reviews in Aquaculture, serves on the editorial board of Aquaculture Nutrition and Aquaculture Research, is on the board of directors of the World Aquaculture Society and the charity Aquaculture without Frontiers.

During the congress special sessions will also take place, among which will have "Technological advances in the intensive production of tilapia in South America - Genetics, market, vaccines and vaccination" (MSD - Merck); "Protease in aquafeed: A solution for better economy and environment" (JEFO Nutrition., Inc.); "Nutrition ingredients" (Darling Ingredients): "Hatchery" (Zeigler Bros., Inc) and "Health management" (Phibro Animal Health Corporation).

So far, more than 450 abstracts of research results have been submitted on subjects such as South American native fishes, shrimp culture, recirculation systems - RAS, fish nutritional needs, aquaculture in indigenous communities, biofloc, aquaponics and processing technologies, amongst others. These abstracts have been sent by academics from a variety institutions such as the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidad de Antioquia, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia and Universidad del Magdalena.

In the last decade, fish production in Colombia has increased at an average annual rate of 8.54 percent, accompanying the global growth trend. The LACQUA18 is a vital business opportunity for the sector, having the commercial exhibit, with the presence of national and foreign companies who represent the whole aquaculture chain.

LACQUA18 are pleased to confirm the participation of companies such as Ictyopharma, Xpertsea, Hipra, Flint Hill Resources, Cipa, Aqua Center, Agrarian Bank, Jefo, Faivre, Fisanet, Darling, TGV, Acqua & Co, Prilabsa, Haxada - Nutreco, Italcol , MSD, Andritz, Tecnoaqua, Proplantas, Xylem, Pharvet, Wenger, Kaeser Compressors, Artkom, USSEC, Aker Biomarine and Quimtia, and many more.

A new start for fish larvae and fry

by Dr Robert Tillner, Product Manager, Aller Aqua Research

The reliable production of high quality offspring is paramount for successful aquaculture. This is true for both a shift from quantity to quality in established species as well as for closing the lifecycle of new candidate species.

High mortality rates can occur in hatcheries if abiotic and biotic conditions are not within tightly framed optima, which is a consequence of the reproductive strategy of many teleost fish species.

The cultivation of many species still relies on the provision of live feed in the early stages. In fact, the discovery and extensive use of rotifers and Artemia may have been the main driving force behind the tremendous growth in aquaculture production so far. Nevertheless, the tremendous efforts in research for manufactured diets in the recent years has substituted live feeds to a large extent.

Aller Aqua has increased its efforts to supply fish in the early life-stages with optimal and tailored feeds. Some fish species benefit from more energy-rich feeds such as fry of rainbow trout, whereas other fish species thrive on feeds with less energy. A series of trials at Aller Aqua Research in Buesum, Germany have shown significantly higher growth, lower FCR and improved nutrient retention in fry of rainbow trout when fed a more energy-rich feed.

Consequently, Aller Aqua relaunches its successful ALLER FUTURA EX GR with a higher fat and energy content, fully dedicated to the nutritional requirements of rainbow trout and other salmonids. At the same time, Aller Aqua launches ALLER THALASSA EX GR with a balanced protein to fat ratio, more suited to larvae and fry of marine species as well as species with lesser energy requirements.

Read the full article in the International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.

Liptosa company profile

LípidosToledo SA began in 1996 as a family business and under the guidance of a group of professionals with extensive experience in the Animal Nutrition field.

From the outset, the company's mission has been to provide its clients with personalised service and efficient, natural products that are able to meet the demands of the sector.

In 2000 Lípidos Toledo SA moved its facilities, building a modern manufacturing plant in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo, Spain). In 2012 it acquired a new industrial warehouse in the vicinity of the main facilities where the manufacturing of the powder additives takes place and a third storage warehouse.

With these new facilities Lípidos Toledo SA is able to have separate manufacturing lines for the different products they manufacture, avoiding the risk of cross contamination.

Furthermore, the new facilities enable the company to manufacture products with fishmeal derivatives, allowing the company further expansion, mainly in the aquaculture range.

The facilities allow the manufacture of nutritional products, liquid and powder based phytobiotic additives, nutraceutical products and nutritional and specialty products without any risk of the products becoming cross contaminated.

In 2010, Lípidos Toledo SA acquired a large office space at C/ San Romualdo 12-14 in Madrid, Spain where all logistics work is carried out. This enables Lípidos Toledo SA to fulfil its objective of manufacturing products of the highest quality and providing its clients the best service.

Visit the Liptoaqua website, HERE.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

VIV Asia 2019 towards the future of food engineering

The show fills up the whole BITEC in Bangkok with more than 1250 exhibitors representing all species and sectors of the value chain.

Mr Ruwan Berculo, Director VIV worldwide
Image credit: VIV

VIV Asia is back on 13-15 March 2019 as the leading Feed to Food international show in Asia. The grand show preview took place at the Nanjing InterContinental in China on the 16th September at the presence of the international and Chinese press, a selection of industry leaders and partners.

Read the full article on the International Aquafeed website, HERE.

Seaweeds provide many ecosystem services beneficial to nature and humans

by Thierry Chopin, Professor of Marine Biology, University of New Brunswick

Seaweed cultivation is well established in Asia and needs little explanation or justification.

In the western world, a renewed interest in seaweed mari-culture has been triggered by their cultivation in integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems, the emerging understanding of the ecosystem services they provide, and, the development of novel uses and applications.

Seaweeds are excellent nutrient scrubbers
An often forgotten function of seaweeds is that they are excellent nutrient scrubbers (especially of dissolved nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon). We should take advantage of the benefits of nutrients, which, in moderation (i.e. within the assimilative capacity of the ecosystem) are not waste or by-products, but co-products and food.

It is all about recycling, which we have no problem with on land (in your house, office, hotel room, garden, farm, etc.), but for which we experience a mental block when translated to the aquatic and marine environments. We should allocate a value to recapturing feed and energy, otherwise lost, and their conversion into other commercial crops.

Much has been said about carbon sequestration and the development of carbon trading taxes. In coastal environments, mechanisms for the recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus should also be highlighted and accounted for in the form of nutrient trading credits (NTCs, a much more positive approach than taxing).

If the composition of seaweeds can be averaged at around 0.35 percent nitrogen (N), 0.04 percent phosphorus (P) and 3percent carbon (C), and the NTCs valued at US$10-30/kg, US$4/kg and US$25/tonne for N, P and C, respectively, the ecosystem services for nutrient bio-mitigation provided by worldwide seaweed aquaculture (30.1 million tonnes) can be valued at between US$1.124 billion and US$3.231 billion, i.e. as much as 27.6 percent of their present commercial value (US$11.7 billion).

The value of this important service to the environment and, consequently, society has, however, never been accounted for in any budget sheets or business plans of seaweed farms and companies, as seaweeds are being valued only for their biomass and food trading values.

The above calculations are based on costs of recovering nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater treatment facilities and values often cited for carbon tax schemes. It is interesting to note that the value for carbon is per tonne, whereas those for nitrogen and phosphorus are per kilogram. Nobody seems to have picked up on that when looking at the sequestration of elements other than C. There is more money to be made with NTC (between US$1,124 and 3.231 billion for N and US$48.16 million for P) than with CTC (only US$22.58 million for C).

Moreover, having organisms able to accumulate P is becoming increasingly attractive when considering that, in the not too distant future, the next P peak will not be that of petroleum, but that of phosphorus.

The recognition and implementation of NTCs would give a fair price to seaweeds and other extractive aquaculture species. They could be used as financial incentive tools to encourage mono-aquaculturists to contemplate IMTA as a viable aquanomic option to their current practices.

Read the full article in the International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.

Jefo company profile

Jefo is a world leader in the field of non-medicated performance feed additives for the poultry, swine, ruminant and aquaculture sectors. Founded in Canada in 1982, today Jefo has offices on 5 continents, and specialises in the design, manufacturing, warehousing and JIT-distribution of an array of animal nutrition specialty products.

Jefo is a pioneer in the green revolution taking place in animal nutrition.

According to their website: "Our commitment is to providing effective alternatives for optimal performances in animal nutrition".

The Europe / Africa division of Jefo was created in 1998 and is headquartered in Nantes, France. We market a line of original products including vitamins, enzymes, organic acids and essential oils.