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USSEC Southeast Asia Conducts Broodstock Nutrition Seminar in Thailand

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USSEC’s aquaculture program recently welcomed an experienced marine fish broodstock expert, Dr. Robert Vassallo Agius, to Thailand to speak primarily to the Asian sea bass hatchery industry. The target of the presentation was to highlight the importance of formulated broodstock feeds as both a biosecurity measure and for better production. Originally intended for an audience of about 40 participants, the final number swelled to over 60 as industry learned of the seminar’s content, with both commercial and government interest as well as commercial feed firms.
This topic, and another on larval nutrition and rearing, benefited from the fact that Dr. Agius is one of the leading individuals working on broodstock nutrition in Japan and Europe. It is also an important one as Thailand is a major producer of large numbers of Asian sea bass fingerlings for domestic and regional use, but not particularly high quality ones.
High quantities of high quality marine fish fingerlings are an important step to moving to industrial-scale production of marine fish in Southeast Asia and will lead to a requirement for high quality and consistent feeds for growout operations. It is in that area that USSEC expects expanded promotion of U.S. Soy products in the marine fish aquaculture industry.

Dr. Robert Vassallo Agius, broodstock nutrition expert from Malta
Dr. Robert Vassallo Agius, broodstock nutrition expert from Malta
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Photo from rear of meeting room shows a packed hall with over 60 participants, not including USSEC staff or contractors