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Can
address
aquaculture challenges?
by Rui Gonalves, Technical Manager Aquaculture, Biomin
Challenges in aquafeeds
Reliance upon scarce and costly raw materials, such as fishmeal, and the optimal use of
alternative ingredients, likely constitute one of
the main concerns in aquaculture. Consumer
awareness about environmental sustainability
also encourages producers to improve the
production performance through sustainable
aquaculture practices. However, the use of
less costly protein sources and low-nutrient
dense diets will most likely lead to lower protein digestibility, higher amino acid imbalance,
higher carbohydrate and fibre content.
This can lead to inefficient nutrient use,
resulting in increased feed usage and consequently higher production costs. In addition,
sub-optimal animal performance leads to
greater susceptibility to disease and higher
ammonia emissions that increase the ecological footprint. Phytogenic feed additives
consisting of herbs, spices, extracts or other
plant-derived compounds have gained
considerable attention as an answer to these
challenges. The active ingredients (e.g. phenols
and flavonoids) can exert multiple effects in
animals, including improvement of feed conversion ratio (FCR), digestibility, growth rate,
reduction of nitrogen excretion and improvement of the gut flora and health status.
Reduced dependence on
fishmeal verses feed efficiency
FEATURE
Figure 2: Phytogenics mode
of action on aquatic species.
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