Each life stage in aquaculture has different nutritional requirements. The earliest feed stages are fundamental, providing both an immediate impact and long-term effects as fish advance to maturity. Proper and precise nutrition during the nursery phase is essential for growth, organ development, resistance to pathogens and fillet yield at harvest.
Aquaculture Business
Development Manager – Asia
ADM
Aquaculture Nutritionist Creation & Development
ADM
Farm management-related stressors are common in aquaculture operations, ranging from transportations, transfers, gradings, as well as vaccination procedures including fish exposure to hypoxia, injuries, various water qualities, infectious environments and populations. Many of these events happen at juvenile stages when the fish are immature and not yet fully developed, including on digestive and immunological aspects, which may lead to mortalities, loss of performance and ultimately may impact the entire production cycle.
Aquaculture producers are seeking ways to address these stressing events and minimize possible further consequences to their operations. Precise formulation, tailored to nutritional and physiological requirements of animals at all life stages, is designed to support animal production performance and resilience.
THE COMMON PROBLEM
When it comes to aquaculture performance, health and profitability, most farmers know how important a successful early start can be on future life stages. Stress in young fish can affect physiological structures and growth at a time when both the immune and digestive systems are not fully developed. Factors like water temperature, quality and salinity can affect fish metabolism and nutritional needs.
Each life stage in aquaculture has different nutritional requirements. The earliest feed stages are fundamental, providing both an immediate impact and long-term effects as fish advance to maturity. Proper and precise nutrition during the nursery phase is essential for growth, organ development, resistance to pathogens and fillet yield at harvest.
As such, nutrition plays an important role in supporting fish through early life stage challenges. Precise feed formulations are particularly effective, delivering the proteins, amino acids, lipids, vitamins, minerals, digestive enzymes and functional additives necessary for healthy development and growth.
A FIELD-TESTED SOLUTION
Supporting juvenile life stages has continuously shown to be critical to fish farming success. Early targeted measures can help decrease the risk of secondary disorders occurring again, resulting in improved aquaculture performance.
To address this growing issue, ADM took a holistic assessment of the many diverse factors affecting fish physiology, resulting in the development of a feeding strategy aimed at reducing the risk of antimicrobial resistance, in addition to designing a new functional feed solution – Aqua Immune One. Aqua Immune One is a feed solution that helps minimize the effect of external stressors and potential pathogens while also promoting efficient aqua species growth without the need for antibiotics.
The solution was tested in a dedicated tilapia trial at the ADM Brazil research and development facility in Aparecida do Taboado and featured eight cages per treatment in real field conditions on the Parana River.
Results showed significant 23% increase in biomass and 13% improvement in feed conversion rate (FCR), as well as 11% erythrocytes and 22% albumin blood concentrations increased values compared to the control cages within one month after vaccination and/or handling stress. These results led to a significant 5% increase in body weight at harvest six months later, after only four weeks of distributing the specific feed during the juvenile stage of the tilapia.
With a successful trial and viable proof of concept, ADM proposed Aqua Immune One to a prominent tilapia producer in Brazil looking to reduce their use of antibiotics as a preventative practice. After using it on a small scale, their orders continuously progressed until it covered 100% of their juvenile feeding program, totaling 900 MT within nine months. By no longer using antibiotics in feed for preventative use, the producer finally succeeded to earn the Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP) certification, opening their sales to new markets. Plus, observations of antibiotic resistance dramatically decreased within their production site, as well as encouraged this key producer to re-think its farm health management strategy as a lever of performance and sustainability. Additionally, ADM earned a first-place award in the sustainability category of the Aquaculture Innovation Awards with its innovative Aqua Immune One solution.
This case study underscores the advantages of precise feed formulation and the careful selection of feed additives in maintaining fish physiology and homeostasis under various stress conditions. These nutritional tools can aid other fish producers in enhancing farm management practices and performance while decreasing reliance on antibiotics and chemicals, thereby reducing environmental impact.
In addressing antimicrobial resistance, these practices may contribute to mitigating a growing global health concern. Producers may also consider adopting feed solutions and approaches for improved productivity and profitability, while also embracing environmentally and health-conscious management practices.
About Marc Campet
Marc Campet oversees Aquaculture Commercial Development for Asia at ADM. He has been with ADM for over 20 years, holding various positions from technical field to R&D. His current role includes coordinating growth strategy projects, managing the aquaculture product portfolio, leading strategic projects, developing new projects in collaboration with the technical/innovation team, and proposing new setups to maximize profitability and market presence of the company in the region.About Fredric Baron
Frederic Baron is an Aquaculture Nutrition Referent with over 20 years of expertise in fish and shrimp nutrition. Since 2004, Baron has been a vital part of ADM Animal Nutrition, where he specializes in defining fish feed specifications for ADM subsidiaries across Asia, South America, and North America. He collaborates closely with internal R&D teams and provides essential technical support in aquafeed to external parties, focusing on raw material knowledge, nutritional definitions, feed formulation, and adapting feeding practices to environmental conditions. Frederic Baron graduated as an Engineer in Animal Production from Tours University in France in 1998.
