FEED Business Worldwide March, 2012

 

 

by F.E. OLIMPO

 

 

The search for fishmeal alternatives dominated discussions at the Aquafeed Horizons 2012 conference, held February 15th on the sidelines of the three-day Victam Asia 2012 exhibition at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC).

 

As Dr. Alejandro Buentello, vice president of research and aquaculture business at Shillinger Genetics, Inc., USA, pointed out, "Our food sources need to grow at a faster pace" to keep up with the demand. But of all protein lines, only aquaculture has the "true potential" to outpace consumption's growth. For this reason, sea food is expected to overtake chicken as the world's top protein source by 2050.

 

The only downside is that aquaculture heavily relies on fishmeal, which is dependent on unsustainable fish catch, as a key feed ingredient. Hence, "we need to provide alternative sources to provide what fishmeal will not be able to supply." According to him, fishmeal content in aqua feed has fallen from 53% in the early 1990s to under 30% today. But due to chemical roadblocks in plant protein, we can't easily get it below this proportion, he added.

 

Early in the conference, Dhanapong Sangsue, technical sales manager of Evonik Degussa Southeast Asia, briefed aqua feed professionals attending the conference on the varied qualities of fishmeal available in Southeast Asia. He pointed out that with Malaysian and Indonesian fishmeal showing higher nutritional levels than its Thai counterparts, supplementation must be adjusted accordingly.

 

He was followed by Dr. Victor Suresh, director of nutrition and feeds at the Brunei-based Integrated Aquaculture International, which specialises in vertical integration for the shrimp-farming industry, spoke about "efforts to completely replace fishmeal in shrimp feeds using poultry byproduct meal (PBM)."

 

In his presentation, Suresh disclosed that PBM has shown considerable attractability and palatability factors especially compared to plant-based protein meals. Shrimp, according to him, usually do not tolerate high fat levels.  But particular studies show they are able to tolerate significantly higher levels of PBM fat, efficiently turning it into weight gain.

 

Later, Miguel Cizin, president of Uruguay-based Biomat SA offered a sustainable alternative to fishmeal, which depends on wild catch. Boasting of a new, land-efficient method of growing spirulina algae in discarded, second-hand shipping container particularly spirulina, he identifies mass-produced algae as the "missing link" in the feed industry's search for a replacement to fishmeal.

 

As rich in protein and omega 3 oils as fishmeal and far more digestible than plant-based aqua feeds, Cizin's method reduces spirulina growing costs to the point that it can be sold for US$1,200/tonne, roughly equivalent to fishmeal's current price.

 

Dr. Chhorn Lim, supervisory nutrition scientist for the USDA's Aquatic Animal Health Unit, also unveiled recent efforts to substitute fishmeal with the less expensive distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS) at least in tilapia diets. Generally corn and wheat DDGS are deficient in lysine and methionine. But feeding studies have shown, he said, that 20-30% DDGS can be included in tilapia diets without requiring lysine supplementation. With lysine supplementation, 40% of DDGS or even higher can be used without affecting growth and feed efficiency.

 

While some searched for fishmeal alternative, others focussed on optimizing nutrient utilization as a way of reducing fishmeal dependence. Peter Couttreau, business development manager for aquaculture at Nutriad International NV, Belgium, said that efforts like these show a lot of promise, especially with the use of digestibility enhancing additives. These additives, he explained, "have the potential to improve nutrient utilization from cheap ingredients and stimulate the conversion of nutrients into meat gain and less into fat accumulation in muscle and viscera."

 

In a similar vein, Peter Hutchinson, director of E.N. Hutchinson, New Zealand, spoke in great detail how feed mill technologies and components can be used to optimize the production and nutritional characteristics of aqua feed.

 

The world has still not found a viable subistitute for fishmeal and will not do so for some time to come. Yet, this conference made some things clear, both by what it said and what it did not say: Krill appears to have fallen off the radar, as it was never even mentioned at this event. However, progress has been made with alternative animal and algae-based meals, with the latter seizing more of the limelight. This story is far from finished and we look forward to learning another chapter during this conference's next edition.