LESSON 1 Aqua Feeds: An Overview

Aquaculture has become a significant producer of healthy protein for a growing world population, and manufactured feeds have been a key driver of success. The biology and physiology of aquatic animals is different than land animals, and making feeds suitable for numerous fish and shrimp species is uniquely challenging. As aquaculture expands into the future, formulation of feeds made from sustainable ingredients that support rapid growth yet produce healthy, strong animals in high intensity culture will be essential. Topic 1 : Aquaculture Feeds: Past, Present, Future Topic 2 : Aqua Nutrition and how it compares with that of Livestock and Poultry Nutrition

LESSON 2 Fish Nutrition Requirements

To obtain optimal growth and health of fish, feeds have to have complete nutrition, with nutrients in proper balance.

• In this lesson series, we focus on requirements of key nutritional components, as well as the effect inadequate intake of any nutrient has on animal performance and immunity.
• In addition, we outline the changes in behavior, metabolic effects and disease states caused by known nutritional deficiencies.

LESSON 3 Crustacean Nutrition Requirements

Crustaceans are invertebrates with exoskeletons, with biology and physiology different than aquatic vertebrates like fish. Crustaceans undergo a periodic molting process which controls growth, and there are some nutrients that are uniquely essential to crustaceans that fish do not need.

• This lesson highlights the specific nutrient requirements of
  • Marine shrimp
  • Several species of crabs
  • Lobsters

LESSON 4 Special Review: Nutrient Requirements for Warm-Water Species

In this lesson, we pay close attention to the specific nutritional and feed needs of a number of important commercial Asian species such as:

• Tilapia
• Carps
• Pangasius
• Asian seabass
• Milkfish
• Snakehead
• Marine and freshwater crustaceans

LESSON 5 Aquaculture Nutrition and Considerations

This lesson’s lecture series covers several important concepts, such as:

• The classes of nutrients that provide energy, and how fish and shrimp generate and partition energy use in metabolism.
• Stress and less than optimal health status can increase the need for essential nutrients, or can make usually non-essential nutrients conditionally essential.
• In addition to feed quality, environmental conditions and animal behaviors can impact feed intake, which directly influences growth.
• Physical characteristics of feeds as well as feeding strategies need to be designed to meet the specific differences in morphology, physiology and feeding behaviors of each type of aquatic animal being farmed.

LESSON 6 Formulating Aquatic Feeds

The protein content of aquafeeds tends to be hgher than for livestock and poultry, so greater quantities of high protein ingredients are needed.

Furthermore, since feeds are dispersed in water for feeding, there are functional and physical characteristics such as water stability and whether a feed floats or sinks that depend on correct ingredient composition suitable for the extrusion and pelleting processes used to make feeds.

In this section, we focus on:

• The role of feed formulation in making balanced complete feeds having different physical forms
• Introduction to IAFFD an online database containing species nutrient requirements and ingredient specifications to assist feed formulators
• Different classes of ingredients
• Methods for determining ingredient quality
• Commonly found anti-nutritional factors and contaminants in ingredients
• New types of ingredients being used to make feeds more sustainable, including insects and single-cell organisms.

LESSON 7 Functional Ingredients and Additives

This lesson discusses a number of special ingredients and additives that may or may not have nutritional value used to:

• Improve physical feed quality and shelf life
• Provide attractive coloration
• Promote better animal health
• Reduce the effects of stress
• Boost immune response

LESSON 8 Aquafeed Certification

In many countries, aquaculture production is mainly exported, and feed and farm certification by recognized organizations has become an important requirement imposed by importing agencies.

This lesson introduces several of the most important certification agencies and compares and contrasts their certification requirements:

• Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP)
• Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)
• GlobalG.A.P.