CHALLENGES IN SHRIMP NUTRITION AND SUSTAINABILITY

In 2015, almost 60% of the global fish stocks were fully fished, since the year  2000 fish capture remained steady, around 90 million MT/Yr., close to the production limits. As result ,  aquaculture  is growing faster than any other food production sector, contributing  in 2016  to 47% of the global fish production , but w ith  a significant  consumption  of non-renewable ingredients : fish meal and fish oil .  If we want aquaculture  to  continue at such growth rates, there is an urgent need to look for  and develop alternative and sustainable nutrient sources.

To meet the demand for ingredients,  an aquaculture nutritionist needs to shift towards  using  crop-based sugar sources, a more reliable supply  with  lower cost  than marine protein ,  such as soybean meal (SBM), corn stovers and other agriculture waste materials .  The challenge  is not simply to replace ingredients like fishmeal but also to provide disease resistance and health promoting functional nutrients  (i.e. nucleotides, small peptides, etc. ) required by aqua species. Here, a unique biotechnolog ical process  called CelTherm ®  came  in, unlocking and transforming traditional crop-based ingredients, into a more ready assimilable , useful and functional nutrients.

Although plant sources such as SBM represents a sustainable crop and source of nutrients, it has anti-nutritional compounds, i.e. trypsin inhibitors, raffinose, etc.  limiting to a conservative inclusion levels in aquatic diets.  Through CelTherm® process, the plant material is hydrolyzed, filtered and through oligomerization is rebuilt into a higher nutritional ingredient,  with  plenty of small peptides, nucleotides, amino acids, readily available for marine species, enhancing the immune response, survival rate and yield in shrimp and finfish, with low fish meal diet profile.

Aquaculture nutritionists globally were challenged to produce a high performing diet, with a sustainable ingredient, fish meal free  feed (F3). The table shows the results using MrFeed®  Pro50 as replacement for  fish meal, with outstanding results on shrimp performance, offering a viable option to the feed industry, and nourishment of mankind.