November 6, 2017

Nutriad hosts seminar on functional feed additives in aquaculture

Nutriad hosted a customer event at the 2017 European Aquaculture Society (EAS) conference, which took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on October 17-20.

EAS 2017 was among the biggest EAS conferences, attracting over 1,600 participants and more than 40 exhibitors. The Nutriad session "Functional feed additives in aquaculture: How to add more?" was well received by producers of marine fish, fish feed producers and a large number of consultants and academic scientists from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Norway and Croatia.

"Nutriad has invested considerably and consistently in aquaculture research and service during recent years, building a team of experts with global experience in health and specialty additives for fish and shrimp", stated Dr. Peter Coutteau, Nutriad's business unit director of aquaculture. "This seminar was aimed at sharing information with our European aquaculture customers, with a specific emphasis on the Mediterranean producers of marine fish. The audience represented well over 50% of the marine fish production in the Mediterranean region, covered either as farmer or feed supplier."

Invited speaker Dr. Panos Varvarigos provided an overview of the current health challenges and farm management strategies to prevent disease in Mediterranean marine fish. Maria Mercè Isern, Nutriad's business development manager of aqua health, reviewed global experiences with Nutriad's functional feed additives to promote fish health. Alexander van Halteren, business development manager of aqua nutrition, demonstrated how functional feed additives can enhance digestive/metabolic processes in carnivorous fish.

Dr. Palenzuela Oswaldo, researcher at CSIC Torre de la Sal in Spain, reported on a recent study which demonstrated the capability of a functional feed additive to reduce the impact of an infection with Enteromyxum leei on growth and parasite development in gilthead seabream. Isern closed the session with a talk on prevention strategies for monogenean gill parasites and Nutriad's current research programmes in this field. Monogenean parasites are currently regarded as one of the main threats by marine fish producers in southern Europe.

At the EAS17 Exhibition, Nutriad's booth focused on programmes for aquaculture additives which support the prevention of diseases and parasitic infections, with solutions such as SANACORE^®, AQUASTIM^®, APEX^® AQUA, BACTINIL^® AQUA. The company showcased species-specific digestive/metabolic enhancers - namely, AQUAGEST^®, AQUALYSO^®, and LIPOGEST^® -  that reduce feed cost and improve performances in fish and shrimp.

At the scientific conference, Nutriad co-authored a scientific contribution by Rocio Robles et al., demonstrating that a functional feed additive can reduce mortality caused by the monogenean parasite Diplectanum sp. in European seabass. 

"To address the nutritional, digestion and health needs from different aquaculture species, Nutriad has invested in the development of a range of species-specific feed additives that have proven their efficacy across the world, which is coupled with high level technical support from our aqua team," Nutriad CEO Erik Visser said.