May | June 2010

Feature title: Innovative approaches to reduce feed cost in aquaculture:

Optimizing nutrient utilization and gut health
International Aquafeed is published five times a year by Perendale Publishers Ltd of the United Kingdom.
All data is published in good faith, based on information received, and while every care is taken to prevent inaccuracies,
the publishers accept no liability for any errors or omissions or for the consequences of action taken on the basis of
information published.
©Copyright 2009 Perendale Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form
or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owner. Printed by Perendale Publishers Ltd. ISSN: 1464-0058

The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry

 F: Feed cost F: Feed cost

Innovative approaches to reduce Figure 1: Compounds with potential for

improving digestibility and feed utilization in

feed cost in aquaculture fish (IN=intestine • PA=pancreas • LI=liver •

BB=bile bladder •ST=stomach • E=esophagus •
PC=pyloric caeca)

Optimizing nutrient utilization and gut health

in aquaculture of nutritional and/or func-
tional feed additives developed for livestock
by Peter Coutteau, Sam Ceulemans and Alexander van Halteren, NutriAd International, Belgium
is often not trivial. The present article
illustrates the potential to reducing cost of
feeding in aquaculture by either improving
The strong fluctuations of feed ingredient prices in combination with low market prices for aquaculture the efficiency of nutrient utilization or by
products challenge the profitability of many aquaculture operations around the globe. This has accel- optimizing gut health.
erated a search for alternative formulations 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 Digestibility enhancement
feed formulation to reduce the cost of feeding fish and shrimp. and improving
nutrient utilization
percent reduction of feed cost per kg of
whole fish produced and 16.4 percent
shortening of the production cycle) as
well as for the fish processor (up to 9.25
percent improvement in fillet yield) (van
Halteren et al., 2009).
Traditional feed formulations for marine
fish are high in marine ingredients, contain-
ing 40-50 percent good quality fish meal and
10-15 percent fish oil. Animal by-products,
including specific qualities of poultry by-
products and blood meals, offer interesting
alternatives in terms of nutritional profile
and digestibility but are not always an
alternative to fish meal due to market
conditions (eg high demand by the pet-
feed industry) and/or legal and consumer
concerns. Increased replacement of fish

A
A wide variety of concepts and prod-
quaculture is world’s over the past years. Despite the increased system of fish and shrimp. As ingredient ucts are being investigated for improving
fastest-growing sector in efforts to reduce the use of ingredients of prices are rising, nutritionists may find digestion and feed utilization in pigs and

-7%
food production reaching marine origin, fishmeal remains a major or new options for cost reduction in the poultry. Potential products for application

an average growth rate
since 1970 of almost 9 percent (versus
2.8 percent for land-based animal pro-
duction). Global feed production for
farming fish and shrimp has followed
this expansion and is expected to
reach 32 million tonnes 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 operations. In addition, all major aqua-
feed ingredients -including fishmeal, fish oil,
vegetable proteins and fats, wheat flour, feed
phosphates, additives, vitamins and miner-
als- have shown significant price fluctuations
at least significant cost in many aquafeed
formulations. As a result, the recent fluctua-
tions of fishmeal prices are troublesome for
feed manufacturers and farmers, which are
already under economic pressure due to
the low price of the end product.
Optimizing formulation cost for fish
and shrimp requires completing the gaps
in the current knowledge of nutritional
requirements (e.g. nutrient availability and
interactions, the role of natural feed sup-
plements in semi-intensive farming sys-
tems, nutritional requirements in function
of growth stages and culture conditions).
So far, apart from optimizing nutritional
inputs and ingredient selection, aquaculture
nutritionists have spent little attention to
the optimal functioning of the digestive
formulation by maximizing the efficiency
of digestive and metabolic processes which
are at the basis of converting nutrients
into growth. In agriculture, various types of
feed additives are being applied to enhance
the digestibility and/or utilization efficiency
of nutrients, including exogenous enzymes
and various types of digestibility enhanc-
ers allowing to extract more nutrients
out of ingredients, flavours and palatability
enhancers to stimulate appetite, and a wide
range of products (pre/probiotics, botani-
cal extracts, yeast derived compounds) to
maintain a healthy gut. The feeding biology,
digestive physiology and nutritional require-
ments of warm-blooded land animals dif-
fer significantly from those of aquaculture
organisms. Therefore, the direct application
+7.6%
+6.5%
in fish include botanical extracts and phy-
tobotanical compounds, short and medium
chain fatty acids, organic acids, enzymes, and
natural emulsifiers (Figure 1). Digestibility
enhancing additives 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. Effects Figure 2: Data from an 84-days culture trial with European seabass using
on growth, feed conversion and protein triplicate tanks of 600l per diet. Fish were grown at 20-22°C in a seawater
efficiency were illustrated for Tilapia in an recirculation unit from 224g to ± 318g. The control diet consisted of a
practical coated-extruded grow out (crude protein 45 percent; crude fat
earlier contribution (Coutteau et al. 2009 20 percent), containing 19.6 percent Peruvian fishmeal (67 percent CP);
in International Aquafeed, nov-dec 2009). 17 percent fish oil, 5.9 percent wheat gluten, 6 percent corn gluten, 5
Furthermore, the potential impact on farm percent pea protein concentrate, 32 percent defatted soybean meal, 8.5
economics of improved nutrient utilization percent wheat flour, 4 percent extracted rapeseed meal, 1.15 percent
was documented in the field for Pangasius monocalcium phosphate, methionine 0.1 percent, lysine 0.2 percent,
premix 0.55 percent (vitamins, minerals, antioxidant, antimould)
in Vietnam where economic gains were (Ceulemans et al., 2010)
observed both for the farmer (up to 2.4

32 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | May-June 2010 May-June 2010 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | 33

 F: Feed cost F: Feed cost

ing fish meal by vegetable proteins is the Growth system.This increases the risk for the prolif-
depressing action of vegetable ingredients promotion eration of an unfavourable gut microflora or
on lipid digestion, absorption and depo- based on frequent destabilization of the microflora,
sition. Therefore, digestibility enhancers optimized which can affect the optimal functioning
with emphasis on improving lipid digestion gut health of the digestive system. Furthermore, the
have a great potential to support growth and digestive system of fish and shrimp is the
of carnivorous fish fed feeds contain- Rising feed Escalating intestinal Environmental
Opportunistic
main entry port for bacterial and viral
Low Shrimp
ing reduced levels of fishmeal and higher
cost microflora infections, which remain a major risk for
fish meal price diseases impact & fish prices
levels of vegetable ingredients. European The ban on the profitability of aquaculture production.
seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax), a marine the use of anti- Sustainable approaches to modulate the
Rising feed Escalating Opportunistic
carnivorous fish, fed a diet containing 19.6% biotic growthEnvironmental
gut microflora in farmedLow Shrimp
animals include the
Peruvian fishmeal, showed improved growth
cost fish meal price diseasespromoters in impact
use of selected bacteria& fish prices the
to inoculate
(with 6.5%), feed conversion ratio (with poultry and pigs, gut (probiotics), specific nutrients promot-

Tired of hearing only bad news ?

and the subse- ing the development of selected bacte-
quent search rial strains (prebiotics), and specific natural
Figure 3: Percentage improvement for alternatives, compounds (mostly derived from yeast

Tired of hearing only bad news ?

of growth and feed conversion ratio has revealed
Feed is the main cost in most aquaculture operations the and herbal… extracts, so called “phytobiot-
(FCR) for different aquaculture species importance of ics”) capable of modulating the microflora
due to supplementing a phytobiotic and the most difficult one to reduce when ingredient prices are rising …
meal/fish oil by vegetable protein sources Figure 4: Production results with white shrimp gut health and the towards a favorable composition, favoring
growth promoter based on microflora (Litopenaeus vannamei) in a semi-intensive farm
derived from soybean, wheat, rice and corn the development of beneficial bacteria and
modulation (SANACORE® GM). Data in Panama for control ponds Feed is the main
and treatment cost in most development
ponds aquaculture of a
operations …
offers possibilities to stabilize formulation show relative effect on growth (for fish: receiving phytobiotic stable, favorable inhibiting potentially pathogenic micro-
cost in marine fish feeds. However, many SGR, %/day; for shrimp g/week) and feed and supplement (Sanacore®
the most difficult GM)to(see
one reduce when ingredient
gut microflora, prices are
organisms. Therising
latter… strategies have the
Table 1; Vaca et al. 2010).
nutritionists are hesitant to use high levels conversion ratio (FCR) relative on feed efficiency, advantage of being easily applicable at the
to the performance of the
of vegetable protein in marine fish feed due overall perform- feedmill on large volumes of feed and
non-supplemented control
to the fear for slower growth and poorer group in a feeding trial with rently Performance
underutilized and require Preservation
functional ance and productivity. Fish
Health & and shrimp are avoiding
Feed & Foodmajor adaptations of the produc-
Sensory
feed conversion compared to traditional healthy animals. Feeding trials additives to maximize
Enhancement their utilization by
& Stabilisation highly exposed to exchanges
Well-being of microflora tion
Safetyprotocols at the farm. A synergistic
Improvement
feeds containing high levels of fish meal. were run in triplicate tanks the fish’s digestive and metabolic processes. between the environment and the digestive blend of phytobiotics was selected for
Carnivorous fish – like any other animal – for Gilthead seabream Sparus
aurata (trial duration 56 days; Performance Preservation Health & Feed & Food Sensory
require a balanced diet which is satisfying
starting from 70g); Nile tilapia Enhancement & Stabilisation Well-being Safety Improvement
Nutriad has developed innovative feed additives
nutritional requirements and of acceptable Oreochromus niloticus (70
palatability/digestibility to promote inges- days; starting from 17g); and

specifically to reduce the feed cost in fish and

tion/digestion. Formulating marine fish feed white shrimp Litopenaeus
with less marine ingredients requires good vannamei (56 days starting
knowledge of nutritional requirements and
from 1g) (Ceulemans et al.,
2010). Nutriadproduction
shrimp has developed innovative feed additives
functional/nutritional additives which are
capable of solving some of the typical prob- specifically to reduce the feed cost in fish and
lems encountered in carnivorous fish fed
high levels of plant protein, such as reduced
maximize protein sparing effects. It has
now been documented for a number of
7%) and protein efficiency ratio (PER, with
7.6%) due to the supplementation of a
AQUAGEST
shrimp production
®

Rising feed Escalating Opportunistic Environmental Low Shrimp

palatability and digestibility, anti-nutritional carnivorous fish species (including salmon, digestibility enhancer (Fig. 2). This clearly Maximizes
cost digestibility and feed utilization efficiency
fish meal price diseases impact & fish prices
factors and amino acid misbalances. Kroghdal et al. 2003; trout, Romarhein et demonstrates that the nutrients present in
Dietary fat is an important source of al., 2008; Gilthead seabream, Gomez et al., feeds containing low levels of fish meal and AQUAGEST®
AQUABITE
®

energy for marine fish and is crucial to 2004), that one of the challenges for replac- high levels of vegetable proteins are cur- Maximizes digestibility and feed utilization efficiency
Enhances palatability and appetite
Table 1: Production results with white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) in a semi-intensive farm in Panama for control ponds and treatment AQUABITE ®
SANACORE® GM
Tired of hearing only bad news ?
ponds receiving phytobiotic supplement (Sanacore® GM) (average and standard deviation of 8 replicate ponds of 3ha each per treatment,
initial stocking density at 8/m2, 141 days of culture; Vaca et al., 2010). Enhances growth
Improves palatability and appetiteby promoting a healthy gut microflora
and productivity
Average

Treatment Survival (%)

Shrimp
Crop
Yield
Feed
FCR
Weekly
Growth
coefficient of
variation for
SANACORE® Feed
GMis the main cost in most aquaculture operations …
size (g) (kg/pond 3ha) Improves and the most
growth difficult one to
and productivity by reduce whenaingredient
promoting prices
healthy gut are rising …
microflora
(kg/ha) (g/wk) parameters
listed (CV%)
applying nature for a healthy and sustainable future

Sanacore® 4,170 ± 338 1.91 ± 0.23

55.5 ± 7.1 a 16.6 ± 1.5 a 735 ± 78 a 0.825 ± 0.075 a 10%
GM a a
applying nature for a healthy and sustainable future
3,464 ± 396 2.17 ± 0.39
Control 44.6 ± 10.6 b 15.7± 2.9 a 543 ± 90 b
b a
0.776 ± 0.137 a 18% info.aqua@nutriad.net
Performance Preservation Health & Feed & Food Sensory
% change www.nutriad.net
Enhancement & Stabilisation Well-being Safety Improvement
Sanacore +24.4% +5.8% +35.2% +20.4% -12.1% +6.3% -41%
vs Control info.aqua@nutriad.net
P Value 0.0304 0.4395 0.0004 0.0018 0.7130 0.3876 --- www.nutriad.net

34 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | May-June 2010

Nutriad has developed innovative feed additives
May-June 2010 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | 35
specifically to reduce the feed cost in fish and
 F: Feed cost
their bacteriostatic and bactericidal prop-
erties against pathogenic and potentially
pathogenic bacteria in vitro using the disk
diffusion method. This blend was capable
of promoting growth significantly in feeding
trials with healthy specimens of different
species of fish and shrimp growing under
controlled lab conditions (Fig. 3).
Effect of optimizing gut
health and intestinal
microflora on productivity
and economics of semi-
intensive shrimp farming
The efficacy of phytobiotics was tested
under the field conditions for shrimp pro-
duction in Panama during the dry season
(September 2009- February 2010) by Vaca
et al. (2010). The dry season in Panama
is characterized by unstable climatological
conditions, resulting in strong temperatures
fluctuations which in turn affect shrimp
growth and increase the impact of outbreaks
of white spot virus (WSSV). During the trial,
two treatments were compared which only
36 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | May-June 2010
differed with regard to the supplementation
or not of a phytobiotic growth promoter
(Sanacore® GM, Nutriad, Belgium) to the
standard feed used at the farm.
The supplementation of the phytobi-
otic feed additive resulted in improved
values for all production parameters
analysed in this study (Table 1; Fig.
4). Survival and processed crop yield
(kg/ha) presented highly significant
improvements (P<0.03), amounting to
a relative increase with 24 percent and
35 percent compared to the control
group, respectively. Although the other
parameters did not show significant dif-
ferences, important improvements were
observed for the treatment receiving
the phytobiotic, including 5.8 percent
larger average shrimp size at harvest
and 12 percent better feed conver-
sion compared to the control group.
The addition of the phytobiotic reduced
drastically the variability of production
results among ponds fed the same feed
(average coefficient of variation between
Have YouSUMMIT2010
Good
ponds for the six production parameters: Experienced Agricultural
Practice
This In Your Elevator?
control 18 percent versus SANACORE
group 10 percent; Table 2).
7th - 8th October I The 10th GLOBALG.A.P Conference I London, UK
The drastic effects of the phytobiotic
product on survival may be related to the
fact that this study was performed during the
worst farming cycle of the year in Panama,
when shrimp ponds are exposed to severe
For over 35 years, and in more than
transitional changes in weather at the end
of the wet season and the beginning of the
50 countries, Tapco has been solving the
dry season. Natural White Spot Disease out- problem of bent & torn steel buckets.
breaks were observed during shrimp farming
in both treatments under similar frequency
and severity; WSSV virus was confirmed by
immuno-chromatography and nested-PCR
tests. The presence of a synergistic blend of
phytobiotics with antimicrobial activity possi-
bly protected the shrimp from co-infections
Farming for
with opportunistic bacteria, often the major
cause of mortality in WSSV-infected shrimp.
Higher crop yield per hectare due to bet-
ter survival often results in slower growth
Consumers
due to reduced availability of natural food. ®
Despite significantly higher survival and crop
yield, a positive effect was observed of
phytobiotics on growth rate and food con- STYLE CC-HD (HEAVY DUTY)
version. This confirmed that the continuous
dosing of natural anti-microbial activity in the
Polyethylene Elevator Bucket
feed results in beneficial physiological effects
from stabilizing the microflora present in the Everything you need to
Urethane • Nylon
digestive system.
T know
the elevator legabout
and “give” or Good
“yield” to bypassAgricultural
apco nonmetallic buckets have the ability to absorb impact in
an obstruction.
Conclusion
Current aquafeed formulations are Practice certification in one
They then return to their original shape and keep on working for you.
Tapco buckets weigh less than their pressed steel counterparts, lack
mainly focused on nutritional specifica-
tions and ingredient selection, whereas
the optimal utilization of the nutrients
sharpplace
edges and therefore are far safer and easier to handle when
fitting an elevator.
and the health status of the digestive tract With 900,000 buckets in 64 sizes stocked throughout the
are two areas which are rarely taken into
world, Tapco has what you want, when you need it! Tapco
account. This is in strong contrast with the
also maintains over 14 million elevator bolts in imperial
vast progress made in the agrifeed sector,
where nutrient digestibility and gut health Come and and jointhreads
metric us forin the best Tapco
five styles. net- fanged elevator HOT TOPICS
are regarded as two focus areas for further working, boltsdiscussion
have been specifically
and debates designed
at to work with
the
FANGED HEAD
optimization of feed cost-efficiency. The world‘s
Elevator Bolt nonmetallic
favourite buckets.
conference event for  Learn about the New Version of the
current paper illustrated with lab and field Good Agricultural Practice!
Contact Tapco or visit www.tapcoinc.com today. GLOBALG.A.P Standard
studies the potential benefits in terms of
Top International speakers from the private and  Responsible Management of Resources
productivity and farm economics of specific
 Residue Monitoring
public sector will provide key insights into Good
feed additives developed to enhance the
functioning of the digestive tract of fish and
Replace your steel buckets with Tapco – the
Agricultural Practice developments around the buckets Smallholder Programmes
shrimp, either by improving the nutrient the memory
withglobe. Join our.retailer and supplier members as  Certification Integrity
utilization or by stimulating the develop- they share with you how they are implementing  Social Practices in Primary Production
ment of a healthy gut microflora. GLOBALG.A.P into their global supply chains.  Aquaculture and Livestock Trends
 Linkages to Consumer Labels
References available from the author.
7th - 8th October 2010
More inforMation: HILTON London Metropole Hotel
Peter Coutteau London, UK ELEVATOR BUCKETS - ELEVATOR BOLTS
NutriAd International
Kloosterstraat 1, 2460 Kasterlee, Belgium 225 Rock Industrial Park Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63044 U.S.A.
Email: p.coutteau@nutriad.net You want to know more about our event?
Tel.: +1 314 739 9191 • Fax: +1 314 739 5880 • Email: sales@tapcoinc.com • www.tapcoinc.com
Then please visit www.summit2010.org.
The color blue, when used in connection with elevator buckets, is a U.S. registered trademark owned by Tapco Inc. © 2010 Tapco Inc.® All rights reserved.
This digital re-print is part of the May | June 2010 edition of International Aquafeed magazine.
Content from the magazine is available to view free-of-charge, both as a full online magazine on our
website, and as an archive of individual features on the docstoc website.
LINKS
Please click here to view our other publications on www.docstoc.com.

VO L U M E 1 3 I S S U E 3 2 0 1 0
• See the full issue
Alternative Lipid Sources
• Visit the International Aquafeed website
in Aquafeeds

Phytobiotics and
Prebiotics:
- a new alternative for sustainable
• Contact the International Aquafeed Team
aquaculture

• Subscribe to International Aquafeed

Innovative approaches
to reduce feed cost in
aquaculture:
- Optimizing nutrient utilization and gut health
THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE FOR THE AQUACULTURE FEED INDUSTRY
Member of the World Aquaculture Society, European Aquaculture Society, American Feed Industry Association
and the International Aquafeed Association

IAF10-03.indd 1 30/04/2010 16:17

To purchase a paper copy of the magazine, or to subscribe to the paper edition please contact
our Circulation and Subscriptions Manager on the link above.

INFORMATION FOR ADVERTISERS - CLICK HERE

www.aquafeed.co.uk