BioMar’s latest research sheds light on the challenges of aquafeed nutrition associated with waterborne feeding systems. This feeding technology is gaining popularity among salmon farmers for its potential to reduce energy consumption, microplastic pollution, and sea lice exposure.
Waterborne feeding systems differ from traditional airborne methods by delivering feed underwater in aquaculture tanks.
While the benefits are promising, BioMar has identified key factors that contribute to nutrient loss in feed delivered through submerged systems. The findings show the complexity of designing aquafeed that performs consistently under the conditions of waterborne feeding systems.
Leveraging its extensive experience with its ORBIT product range and POWER grower diets, BioMar said it has made significant progress in understanding how raw materials and production processes affect feed performance in submerged environments.
Early validation trials on commercial systems have shown promising results, providing a solid foundation for further development.
“Through our research, we now have a better understanding of the complex dynamics of waterborne feeding,” said Ewan Cameron, product marketing manager of the grower category at BioMar. “These insights enable us to refine our feed formulations and production techniques, significantly reducing nutrient loss.”
Although BioMar’s research in this area is ongoing, the results so far reflect a strong commitment to tackling the challenges of waterborne feeding head-on. With a specialized grower diet for these systems currently under development, the company said it remains focused on providing farmers with the tools they need to unlock the full potential of this technology.
Q&A
We ran a Q&A with Ewan Cameron on the findings:
FEN: What specific factors contribute to nutrient degradation in waterborne feeding systems, and how does BioMar aim to mitigate them?
EC: The factors are multifactorial and offer a different degree of nutrient loss from the pellet. The amount of time that the pellets spend in the water may be a factor but from the research conducted so far, other water quality parameters have also had a significant effect on nutrient loss from the pellet. For BioMar, this only highlights the complexity of the situation and requires a focused and specific solution looking into nutrient loss when used in waterborne feeding systems.
FEN: How do BioMar’s ORBIT product range and POWER grower diets address the unique conditions of submerged feeding systems?
EC: Since the launch of ORBIT, BioMar has been working hard to improve the benefits to land-based farmers even further and the knowledge gained from this, has been invaluable to the research team involved in this project. For example, for feed that is specifically designed for land-based systems, it’s important to have as minimal impact on the biofilters as feasibly possible and that as much of the nutrition within the feed finds its way to the fish. It is the same principle for feed transported through a waterborne feeding system, we have a responsibility to make sure that farmers extract as much of the potential of any diet as possible so that they can achieve the best production results.
The same goes for POWER, with a focus on providing the highest performance potential, POWER is about being able to deliver the most energy for the fish to utilize. Providing feed with high levels of digestible energy (DE) does create a challenge, but the knowledge that we have gained over the years to produce high-energy diets has been hugely important to the research team and has provided a solid base for waterborne diets.
FEN: What were the key findings from BioMar’s internal trials and early commercial validation trials, and how do they inform future product development?
EC: Our initial findings show significant differences in various types of diets and formulations in nutrient loss when transported through a waterborne feeding system.
Understanding the performance of various raw materials used in the feed recipe is key to making the necessary adjustments during the feed production process itself, as this can impact overall nutrient loss. All the findings so far inform us that reducing the nutritional loss in feed is a real challenge for feed delivered through a waterborne system, but one we at BioMar are meeting head-on.
FEN: What timeline can salmon farmers expect for the release of a grower diet tailored to waterborne systems?
EC: The research team is continuing to work hard on this area of study. While we have seen a lot of positive data and made some great progress, we are still a few months away from being able to fully launch [a final product] with customers.
Credit: feednavigator.com
