If the sustainability and food security aspects of aquaculture production are of perpetual importance, the protection of fish health cannot be overstated.

 

Fish can die from various natural and unnatural causes, including "old age, starvation, body injury, stress, suffocation, water pollution, diseases, parasites, predation, toxic algae (and) severe weather," according to LA Helfrich of the Virginia Cooperative Extension ("Fish Kills: Their Causes and Prevention"). While some causes like old age are inevitable, others can be prevented, or mitigated in their impact.

 

In the area of fish health, much can be done to ensure fish survivability and longterm productivity.

 

In this issue of Livestock & Feed Business, Orffa explains the use of betaine which can serve as "an efficient methyl donor, protective osmolyte, feed attractant and liver protector" (pages 8-9). Betaine sources like the company’s betaine product, Excential Beta-Key, can help tilapia farmers "reach their full potential in a more sustainable way," Orffa says.

 

"Supporting fish and shrimp with appropriate vitamins can help make farming more sustainable and help get the world closer to zero hunger," DSM notes (pages 10-11). The company refers to the determined levels of its OVN Optimum Vitamin Nutrition® supplementation which can compensate for several factors influencing "animals’ requirements and corresponding feed levels, thus ensuring that vitamin fortification does not limit performance."

 

Through the effective use of feed additives, better fish health is one future outcome aquaculture producers can work towards. This can not only cut antibiotic use but also provides the world with an increasingly dependable and uncompromising food source - with little impact to fish, humanity and the planet.

 

The full article is published on the December 2022 issue of LIVESTOCK & FEED Business. To read the full report, please email to inquiry@efeedlink.com to request for a complimentary copy of the magazine, indicating your name, mailing address and title of the report.