Skretting Ecuador is hosting a workshop March 4, 2016, for shrimp hatchery managers from across Latin America and parts of Asia to provide analysis from its latest diet performance evaluations, trials and case studies, together with a comparative review of all the main commercial juvenile shrimp diets available in the marketplace.
This latest workshop has been prompted by recent disease outbreaks that have heightened concerns about the quality of young shrimp in all production regions. Shrimp farmers, particularly in Ecuador and Brazil, are urging hatcheries to produce bigger, healthier and more uniform, robust juveniles that have a better chance of withstanding such challenges.
In direct response to this demand, many hatchery managers are seeking new hatchery-specific diets for both juveniles and broodstock. More and more are also shifting to three-stage production systems by introducing an intermediate pre-ongrowing stage—usually in raceways—to further condition young shrimp before stocking into ponds. Skretting has been supplying its “PL Shrimp Starter Feed” to an increasing number of hatcheries as well as the new nursery segment, and these operations are seeing significant improvements in the survival, growth and health of their shrimp.
While many feed companies quickly decrease the nutritional quality of their feeds as the animals progress, Skretting maintains the nutritional benefits given in the first life stages through to the late postlarval and nursery/raceway stages. As a result, it sees instances where mortality has been reduced by 50% in the nursery and growth has increased by 20%.
Skretting\'s PL feed has delivered strong results, even when fed at only 33% of the total diet. Hatcheries have seen the survival rate increase to 85-90% from 65-75% in six days, in addition to a 14% improvement in growth. It has therefore been possible to harvest tanks containing PL-fed animals a day earlier than before. Hatcheries have also recognized that its PL pellets behave more stably in the tanks and much less water quality maintenance is required.
(For more information, contact Eamonn O’Brien).
