USSEC recently conducted an aquaculture seminar and visited fish producers in Colombia.
USSEC consultants Jairo Amezquita, Dr. Greg Lutz and an aqua feed producer representative traveled to the cities of Neiva and Tota Villavicencio to conduct the seminar and to provide technical service to fish producers in those cities.  An average of 50 people attended the workshop that was centered on tilapia and native species production farming operations.  Mr. Amezquita gave a lecture titled “USSEC’s Role in the Development of Aquaculture in Latin America,” which emphasized the current situation of the industry at world, Latin American and Colombian levels, as well as opportunities to diversify with new species.  He also presented statistics and results of feeding trials with soybean meal, soybean protein concentrate and soybean protein isolate into the diets of aqua species.  Dr. Lutz gave a presentation titled “Improvement of Tilapia Genetics” and he emphasized the current necessity for improvement to the strains of tilapia available in the region and the importance for local aqua production.
The team also visited seven fish farms near these cities to provide technical services.  Their major recommendations regarded genetics improvement to achieve better production and resistant strains and how to improve the tilapia brood stock management.  They also assisted with the stocking of tilapia eggs received from ponds that day.  At one fish farm, they collected information about tilapia fries production, carrying capacity in the hatchery, and biomass.  They also reviewed the current situation of the Represa de Betania production to understand the necessities and challenges with replacement fish as broodstock into the hatchery due to the presence of Strep bacteria in the Represa de Betania and its impact on production.