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The University of Florida has produced a great set of resources introducing health management in recirculating aquaculture systems.

The resource provides links to a set of three articles on:

• general principles
• pathogens
• problem solving

Feeds which are typically formulated with an excess of protein are usually due to one of two reasons: either the protein is not very digestible so more has to be added to meet amino acid requirements, or excess protein is added because specific essential amino acid requirements are not known.

The excess protein provides a large margin of safety so that there will be less chance that essential amino acids are limiting in the diet. It is not economical or necessary to increase the total protein content of a feed to a point where excessive amounts of many amino acids are included in an attempt to meet the requirement for one or more of the essential amino acids that are shortest in supply.

A diet should be formulated based on digestible amino acid values of feed ingredients and an ideal protein.

The excess nitrogen excreted as ammonia by fish may have a negative impact on the environment because it is a major contributor to water pollution.

Because every species of fish and the individual proteins within each species has its own unique amino acid composition, the ideal situation would be to formulate a low protein feed that would minimize nitrogen excretion and at the same time meet all requirements for essential amino acids.

Today, in other species such as poultry and swine, this is done routinely since synthetic essential amino acids (e.g., methionine, lysine, threonine) are commercially available, and these animals utilize these synthetic amino acids efficiently.

A better understanding of the dietary nutrient requirements of cultured fish species and a continual search for accessible, highly digestible proteins to replace expensive fishmeal is essential. This approach coupled with applying the ideal protein concept in the formulation of fish feeds can greatly ameliorate nitrogen pollution arising from fish production systems and increase profitability.

The catfish and trout farms, which account for the vast majority of the food-fish produced in the United States, already have greatly reduced their use of fishmeal in feeds, to a total of around 5% in catfish diets, and a total of 20% in trout diets.

More information on the ideal protein concept is available here.

This material is drawn from document FA144, one of a series of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Florida, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. First Published: March 2007. Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

Zeigler Bros in Gardners, Pensylvania, will be the first customer of Neptune Industries, a developer of sustainable solutions for aquaculture, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, to purchase 40 tonnes per month of Ento-Protein™, an insect-based alternative to fishmeal.

Ento-Protein is a high quality sustainable protein derived from insects, which is intended to be a replacement for the rapidly depleting fishmeal made from wild caught feedstock species.

Founded in 1935, privately held Ziegler Bros is a manufacturer of high quality animal feeds.

Neptune plans on opening the first of its production facilities in late 2008. Deliveries are expected to begin by the end of this calendar year, following the establishment of pilot operations.

Neptune CEO Ernest D. Papadoyianis said, “The reception Neptune has received from around the world since introducing the product is extremely encouraging. Several other major feed producers have already requested samples.”

Organic designation
Papadoyianis said that recently issued guidelines and recommendations by the USDA Panel on organic standards for seafood, “Make me quite optimistic that standards will be promulgated for organic fishmeal. As the ‘first mover’ in this new product category, we have every reason to believe that Ento-Protein will then qualify for an organic designation.”

The company began a research and testing program for Ento-Protein with Mississippi State University in 2007, and recently completed the third stage of validation trials.

Neptune filed a provisional process patent in the Production and Processing of Select Insects into Protein Meal for Fish and Animal Diets in February 2006.

About Neptune Industries
Neptune Industries is a technology company which from inception has been committed to achieving sustainable, eco-friendly aquaculture by innovating and pioneering a “total and comprehensive integrated systems solution” approach to the mission critical challenges facing the Aquaculture Industry today.

The company operates a sustainable fish farming facility in Florida City, Florida called Blue Heron Aqua Farms, Inc. Blue Heron Aqua Farms currently is one of the leading producers of hybrid striped bass, which it markets nationally and internationally as Everglades Striped Bass.

More about the insect based protein source is available here.