A new virus that has decimated fish populations in Ecuador and Israel has spread to Egypt, according to a new report from the University of Stirling and WorldFish. Scientists are now trying to establish a firm link between the virus and a recent surge in mortalities in Egyptian farmed tilapia.

Residents of a village in the northeastern province of Mukdahan are calling for urgent help from the authorities over long-tailed macaques stealing food from their homes and fish hatcheries. They believe drought has made it hard for the wild monkeys to find food in a nearby forest. The monkeys have been eating fish feed and damaging fish feed bags.

A new, ambitious strategy to drive growth in Scotland’s farming, fishing, food and drink industry was unveiled today by industry body, Scotland Food & Drink. ‘Ambition 2030’, launched today, establishes a vision to cement food and drink as Scotland’s most valuable industry, with the opportunity to more than double turnover in the sector to reach £30 billion by 2030. “Food and drink is now a national success story for Scotland, yet there are areas requiring more work. Too few view our industry as a top career choice, many farmers feel detached from the success story and we can do more to support improvements in Scotland’s health.\"

KSA is to host the region’s first fly farm in a licensing deal between Saudi technology hub Sajt and waste-to-nutrient pioneer AgriProtein. The agreement signals the start of a new industry for the region: commercial-scale production of insect-based animal feed. Sajt will use AgriProtein’s factory blueprint to build the first of three fly farms in Saudi Arabia, boosting food security and supporting Vision 2030.

Researchers from the Mariculture and Experimental Biology Program (MARI) of the National Institute of Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP) developed a balanced extruded feed from a special formulation for yellowtail kingfish. INIDEP researchers determined a base formula composed of about 50 per cent protein, 14 per cent lipids and 17 per cent carbohydrates. From this formula, and with ingredients available in the local market, two formulas were defined: one is regular based on fishmeal, and the other one with its partial replacement.

Nuseed has completed preparation for regulatory approvals of its innovative long-chain omega-3 canola. Nuseed’s proprietary canola will provide long-chain omega-3 oils, similar to those found in fish oil, using a sustainable land-based source. It is anticipated that one hectare of this canola has the potential to provide the omega-3 yield from 10,000 kilograms of fish. The company also announced the commercial brand for the resulting oil product for aquaculture feed uses: Aquaterra.

On a regular basis, the AQUAEXCEL2020 project will invite proposals from European research groups for scientific research that utilizes the facilities of any of the participating aquaculture research infrastructures. Interested researchers can propose projects that involve visits of one or in some cases two people to the chosen research infrastructure for periods of up to three months. Submissions must be made on or before April 17, 2017.

Unga Holdings new feed plant in Kenya is designed to produce 5.000 tons per year of high quality floating fish feed for the East African Market. “In line with our Vision of “Nutrition for Life”, Unga has taken a bold step – investing, with the support of funding from the Dutch Government – Kshs. 225,000,000 in a state-of-the-art fish feed production facility to serve an aquaculture industry still in its infancy.” For the design of the plant, Unga Holdings ltd. cooperated intensively with the dutch companies Ottevanger Milling Engineers, Almex – Extrusion, Nutreco/Skretting and Larive International.

Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) has welcomed the first facility in Greece to engage in the BAP third-party certification program. IRIDA S.A., a fish feed manufacturer located in Evia, Greece, is currently participating in the iBAP program and is expected to transition to BAP certification soon. The company produces 48,000 metric tons of feed annually for sea bream, sea bass, meagre and trout, supplying high-quality feed to aquaculture producers worldwide. “The level of compliance of responsible manufacturing practices that IRIDA applied into its feed production is impressive. IRIDA’s good performance in our iBAP improvement program is allowing the company to transition to third-party certification earlier than expected.\"

GAA has debuted a new online portfolio, which includes redesigned GAA, Global Aquaculture Advocate and Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) websites as well as the new MyGAA community forum and GAA Films. The new online portfolio comes as GAA celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2017. Among the improvements to the new BAP website are a new map feature allowing users to pinpoint the exact location of all 1,600-plus BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills, and simply by clicking on a map pin more information on a facility can be accessed.

The International Soy in Aquaculture Program of the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) has announced the rollout of the Stage 2 version of the International Aquaculture Feed Formulation Database (IAFFD), a standardized tool for feed formulators around the world. “As we increase sustainability by moving away from fishmeal and fish oil in aquafeeds, the easy approach to formulation with those ingredients is over. We have to move to more complex formulations using a wide variety of ingredients to meet target nutrient levels. We need formulators that are good at innovative approaches, and that are trained both within a feed company and within the industry.”

As the price of fish feed continues to increase, companies will need to work to make its use more efficient by creating more precise feed formulas to reduce waste. Albert Tacon of Aquatic Farms pointed out that fish feed prices, which can make up about 60% of the cost to raise fish, have continued to increase significantly, a trend which will not likely change. “Prices of ingredients are never going to go down, they\'re always going to go up.”

The world produced a record one billion tonnes of animal feed last year, and it did so with seven percent fewer feed mills. Aquaculture and the aqua feed industry have seen six years of growth in line with increased consumption of farmed fish. China is the world leader in fish feed production at 16 million tonnes. It’s estimated that three-quarters of the world’s fish feed is consumed in the Asia Pacific region.

A £1 million pilot program to boost innovation in aquaculture in the Highlands and Islands is set to go ahead. The program is targeted at helping small to medium enterprises (SMEs) achieve greater commercialization of new innovative products and services, which will have a positive and sustainable economic and social impact. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has approved the funding package and will run the program in conjunction with the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC). Projects supported will have clear commercial outcomes. Together they are expected to boost industry turnover in the region by around £8 million and create up to 50 jobs, including many in fragile areas.

The American Feed Industry Association has announced the promotion of Gary Huddleston to director of feed manufacturing and regulatory affairs. Huddleston previously served as the manager of feed manufacturing safety and environmental affairs. He joined AFIA in 2015. \"This well-deserved promotion is a result of the excellent work Gary has done surrounding FSMA, as well as EPA, OSHA and DOT, during the last two years.\"

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have identified short DNA segments in tilapia that influence the expression of the genes that regulate the fish’s internal body chemistry in response to salinity stress. Additionally, the researchers developed an assay to identify similar regulatory DNA segments in the genomes of other fish species. “This work represents a critical milestone in our efforts to understand how highly stress-tolerant fish convert environmental signals and cues into very beneficial biochemical and physiological outcomes that enable them to adapt to an extremely wide salinity range that is deadly for most species.”

This year\'s Novus Graduate Scholars Program (NGS) launch is set for March 20 at Sichuan Agriculture University. NGS is based on \"Science-Based, Elite Identification,\" aiming to find the most outstanding graduates and develop their potential to innovate in the industry through scholarships and internships. This informative event is open to students and will be the first step in the process. Applications opened to students on March 8, and NGS candidates will be selected by August.

Scientists at Nofima have analyzed sludge from three aquaculture commercial hatcheries through an entire production year, resulting in precise knowledge about the content of the sludge, presented recently in two reports. The analyses show that sludge has a high content of energy, nitrogen and minerals, such as phosphorus. The content of organic pollutants is low and does not constitute an environmental risk for use in fertilizer. By contrast, the zinc and cadmium levels in sludge are a challenge.

One of the most important fisheries in the world, the Peruvian anchovy fishery, launched this week its Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) to get a “certifiable status” according to the guidelines of the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions (CASS). The Action Plan for the FIP includes an update of the former pre-assessment against the MSC standard, an evaluation of the trophic impacts of the fishery, the improvement of controls for the small-scale fleet and a better understanding of the direct impacts on other species, through a private on board observers program.

LoveTheWild last month announced the close of a $3 million Series A round, led by Dutch investment firm Aqua-Spark. On Wednesday, the company revealed that DiCaprio was among the remaining investors. It was not disclosed how much the actor contributed financially. In a statement, DiCaprio praised LoveTheWild\'s efforts to shift the market toward sustainability with its farm-raised seafood kits: \"The exploitation of our oceans has left many marine ecosystems on the brink of total collapse, which is hurting our ability to harvest our seas as a reliable food source as we have for thousands of years. LoveTheWild is empowering people to take action on this crisis in a very meaningful way.\"