Page 29 - New additives and ingredients in the formulation of aquafeeds
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Innovative approaches to reduce feed cost in aquaculture: optimizing nutrient utilization and gut health
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Innovative approaches to
reduce feed cost in aquaculture:
optimizing nutrient utilization and gut health
P. Coutteau, S. Ceulemans and A. van Halteren
NUTRIAD International NV
Schietstandlaan 2, 2300 Turnhout (Belgium)
Summary
The strong fluctuations of feed ingredient prices in combination with low
market prices for aquaculture products challenge the profitability of many
aquaculture operations around the globe. This has accelerated a search for
alternative formulations and feed additives to improve the cost efficiency
of feeding under various scenarios of ingredient cost and availability. The
present paper illustrates a number of new strategies in feed formulation
to improve the cost efficiency of feeding fish and shrimp, through the use
of feed additives which aim at improving feed utilization and/or gut health.
These approaches yield better feed conversion and growth, and reduce the
impact of disease on productivity in aquaculture operations.
Introduction
Aquaculture is world’s fastest-growing sector in food production reaching an
average growth rate since 1970 of almost 9 percent (versus 2.8 percent for
land-based animal production). Global feed production for farming fish and
shrimp has followed this expansion and is expected to reach 32 million MT
by 2012 (Tacon and Metian, 2008). The fast growth of production volumes
has resulted for many aquaculture species in a continuous erosion of the
sales price at the farm gate and the profitability of the farm operation.
In addition, all major aquafeed ingredients -including fishmeal, fish oil,
vegetable proteins and fats, wheat flour, feed phosphates, additives,
vitamins and minerals- have shown significant price increases over the
past years. Despite the increased efforts to reduce the use of ingredients
of marine origin, fishmeal remains a major or, in the best case, a significant
cost in many aquafeed formulations. The fluctuations of fishmeal prices
over the past years are troublesome for feed manufacturers and farmers,
which are already under economic pressure due to the low price of the end
product (Figure 1).
In the livestock industry, combined research efforts from producers, feed
and additive suppliers, and academic institutes have resulted in a vast
knowledge basis and a wide range of additives to alleviate increased cost
of feed formulations for poultry and pigs. Despite its tremendous growth
over the past decades, aquafeed production represented in 2006 only 4%
