ISSUE FOCUS FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE August 2024 57 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 AquaResults 4 weeks post-stress/vaccination Biomass Gain Cage (g) Feed Intake Cage (g) FCR 22818 a a b b 28138 21731 26646 29304 1.30 ab a b a 1.17 1.36 1.19 a a ab b 32918 29381 31550 +23% +12% -10% +23% +7% -13% Handling (Stress only) Handling + Vaccination 30000.00 25000.00 20000.00 15000.00 10000.00 5000.00 0.00 34000 32000 30000 28000 26000 24000 22000 20000 1.60 1.40 1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 Graphic 1
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