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November | December 2011

Feature title: Copper Alloy Mesh

The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry

Given that supply of natural resources in the oceans is under increasing pressure, the marine aquaculture

industry is growing and looks set to overtake traditional fishing industry as a major source of edible seafood.

In Europe, Asia and Latin America the emphasis is on transforming the current industry into a sustainable industry.

In fact, China has become the only country in the world whose aquaculture production volume exceeds that from tra-ditional fishing. The country’s annual output for aquaculture constitutes as much as 20 percent of global production output.

However, owning to constraints placed by out-of-date aquaculture technologies and facilities, as well as a series of unfavorable nat-ural environmental conditions, China’s marine aquaculture faces challenges with respect to ensuring the adequate supply of healthy and high-quality aquaculture products.

Given this background, International Copper Association China (ICA) and the European Copper Institute (ECI) are introducing copper alloy mesh into China, and respectively Europe, following its great success in introducing the new technology into Chile Salmon farming to contribute to the sustainable development of the world marine aquaculture.

The blue revolutionIn China, a trial targets improving the

professional standards of China’s agricultural

technology and fostering a ‘Blue Revolution’ for Chinese food production, through meet-ing Chinese’s growing needs for protein.

This trial kicked off through a partner-ship with the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, a subsidiary organization of Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences and ICA. They jointly embarked on a research project, evaluating the effectiveness and potential to introduce copper alloy mesh into China’s marine aquaculture, as well as exploring innovations to adapt this technol-ogy to the marine environment of China.

During the past two years, this project has initiated a series of R&D efforts, focusing on verification, design, production and trial run of copper alloy mesh cages tailor made for Chinese local marine environment.

To-date 10 pilot cages have been suc-cessfully placed in Dalian, Weihai, Taizhou and Fangchenggang for testing and on-going research. The types of fish bred in these cages include large yellow croaker, black rockfish, bass and greenling, etc.

Along with this trial, ICA and ECI also rolled out a series of promotional activities, to educate Chinese and European stake-holders and audiences on the benefits of adopting copper alloy mesh.

"It’s an exciting time for this proven product, we are seeing increasing inter-

est in copper alloy cages resulting in significant sales in several parts of the world and important trials in areas where we are rolling out the experience” says Nigel Cotton of ECI. “Forward thinking companies see the need for consolidation of their resources to gain efficiencies, leading to larger cages, the need for bet-ter security from predicators, escapes and better stock keeping”

In September of 2011, International Copper Association (ICA) joined efforts with the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute (ECSFRI), to demonstrate the significant outcome of introducing copper alloy mesh into China’s marine aquaculture through their partnership at the Fuzhou Strait Fishery Expo, one of the most influential fishery trade events in China

COPPER ALLOY MESH

Copper alloy mesh cage sustaining the

world’s marine aquaculture

Pseudoscisena crocea otakii Sebastodes fuscescens Hexagrammos Lateolabrax japonicus

40 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | november-December 2011 november-December 2011 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | 41

Feed Management

IAF11.06.indd 40 04/11/2011 08:42

In August 2011, ECI presented the cop-per alloy cage solution at AquaNor and presented a trial case deployed in Turkey over the summer. In September of 2011, ICA joined efforts with the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute to demonstrate the significant outcome of the their trial project at the 11th Five-year National Fishery Technological Innovation Exhibition, a major activity of the Strait Fishery Expo, one of the most influential fishery trade event in China.

These activities significantly raised awareness of copper alloy mesh in the

marine aquaculture industry, which opened up a favorable condition for further explor-ing the potential of this technology in Europe and China.

Copper alloy mesh technology began in 1975 with small salmon farming enclosures in Northeastern USA.

Since then, alloy technology has evolved and now is being successfully used in Japan, Australia and Chile,

providing productive and sustainable solutions for fish farmers. Development of future applications and trials

of improved copper alloy materials, mesh forms, and aquaculture system configurations are underway with a

variety of species in China, Korea, Panama, Turkey, South Africa, and the United States.

“Copper alloy mesh cages have improved the sanitary conditions, productivity and sustainability of operations

for aquaculture farmers raising salmon, trout and many other species for years,” said Nigel Cotton of the

European Copper Institute.

40 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | november-December 2011 november-December 2011 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | 41

The European Copper Institute (ECI) attended AquaNor 2011, in Trondheim, Norway. ECI demonstrated copper alloys for use in both near and off-shore marine aquaculture enclosures at Booth C-226, “Copper Alloys in Marine Aquaculture: Increasing Productivity, Sustaining the Future”. The exhibit highlighted the use of various forms of copper alloys and provided scientific evidence that copper alloys nets in marine aquaculture help improve fish health and production, prevent predator attacks and escapes, maintain cage volumes and minimize maintenance costs and efforts.

MORE INFORMATION:Irina DumitrescuEuropean Copper InstituteAvenue de Tervueren 168 - box 10Brussels, B-1150 BelgiumTel: +32 2 7777082 Email: id@eurocopper.orgWebsite: www.eurocopper.orgWebsite: www.aquaculture.org

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Ferguson et al. (2010) used more accu-rate and reliable molecular techniques to demonstrate that diets supplemented with Pediococcus acidilactici exhibited altera-tions in GI microbiota. PCR-DGGE revealed direct antagonism of P. acidilactici with an uncultured bacterium (closest known rela-tive was a bacterial clone isolated from the intestine of Atlantic salmon) during a period of reverting to nonsupplemented feeding.

Recent work conducted at the Aquaculture and Fish Nutrition Research Aquarium, University of Plymouth supports this (see Figure 1). Here fish fed a P. acidilac-tici supplemented diet exhibited consider-ably higher LAB populations in their digesta, which, were identified as P. acidilactici. This colonisation of the GI tract (at least during continual supplementation) is thought to be a major advantage for potential probionts.

Growth performance and effect on digestion and nutrient utilisation

Improved growth performance has been observed in tilapia fed diets supplemented with a number of probiotics including S. cerevisiae, Micrococcus luteus, B. subtilis,

Lactobacillus plantarum, Bacillus pumilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Streptococcus faecium as well as various mixtures of these candidates.

However, other studies have failed to show a difference in growth parameters with the use of various probiotics. Contradictory results may reflect the differences in rearing conditions and diet where fish reared under near optimal conditions are unlikely to benefit from probiotic applications.

Probiotics can improve growth perform-ance by increasing nutrient utilisation and uptake, production of enzymes, amino acids, short-chain fatty acids and vitamins.

However, the specific mechanisms in scientific evaluations are often hard to elucidate, due in part to the ethical and methodological limitations of animal stud-ies, together with complex relationships between possible modes of action.

Bacteria commonly found in the gut, including Aeromonads, are known to pro-duce proteases and other gut microbes produce amino acids which could be used by the host.

This helps to explain the findings of Newsome et al. (2011) who showed that

tilapia can obtain their essential amino acid requirements from GI microbiota alone when dietary sources are low or absent.

Other authors have isolated gut microbes that can produce other enzymes involved in digestion (carbohydrases, esterases, lipases, phosphatases, peptidases, cellulases), some of which are being assessed as potential probiotics.

Anaerobic microbes can produce short-chain fatty acids (which can elevate gut motility and be used for energy purposes or further lipid synthesis) by fermenting dietary carbohydrates. Obligate anaerobes, primarily Cetobacterium somereae and Chlostridium spp. can produce large amounts of vitamin B12, thus tilapia do not require a dietary source of this vitamin because of the microbial production capability. Another mechanism which may improve digestive function is the enhancement of the mor-phology of the GI tract.

Morphological effects on the intestine

It has been reported that probiotics can affect fish GI function and morphology. In this respect, a study by Pirarat et al (2011)

16 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | november-December 2011 november-December 2011 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | 17

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18 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | november-December 2011

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VOLUME 14 I S SUE 6 2 011

THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE FOR THE AQUACULTURE FEED INDUSTRY

BioMarine Business Convention

Ecobiol Aqua– A unique and highly effective single strain probiotic

Evaluation of probiotic bacteria in tilapia production

Marine based protein hydrolysate- Improve the performance of feeds containing

a low level of fish meal

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