USSEC participated in the XV Congress Ecuadorian Aquaculture and Aquaexpo, held from October 28 – 31 at the Hilton Colon in Guayaquil, Ecuador.  The conference addressed areas of importance to the Ecuadorian and Latin American aquaculture industry and included technical sessions covering:  efficiency and innovation in aquaculture production; nutrition and effective feeding techniques; shrimp larviculture; advances in disease control; and diversification and markets.  The congress gave participants from the aquaculture industry the opportunity to update their knowledge and to share information with top technicians and aquaculture experts.

USSEC aquafeed consultant Mark Newman discussed new progresses in nutrition and feeding techniques in his presentation titled “Considerations for the Use of Soy Protein from Different Sources to Reduce Fishmeal in Feeds for White Shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei.”  This brief examined the rising cost and scarcity of fishmeal and fish oil due to increased world production of aquaculture products and the limited supply of these sources of marine proteins and lipids.  Dr. Newman talked about how soybean meal has been the largest source of plant-delivered aquaculture feed for decades because of its superior profile of essential amino acids and its reasonable price.
Recently, several new soy products with higher protein levels than typical dehulled, solvent-extracted soybean meal have become available, further allowing the increased reduction of the use of fishmeal in feeds for marine shrimp.  These products include soy protein concentrate (SPC), a non-GMO source of soybean meal (Schillinger SG3010) that contains more protein than regular varieties, and fermented soy protein (FSP).  Dr. Newman presented two examples of USSEC studies in which soy products were successfully used in shrimp diets.  The first cited a 2012 USSEC study in the Philippines that showed that the cost to produce shrimp could be reduced by using Schillinger SG3010 to replace some of the fishmeal in feeds fed to white shrimp.  The second referenced a 2011 USSEC study in China which demonstrated that an algal meal rich in fatty acids could be substituted for fish oil in diets for white shrimp without loss in yield or a major change in the fatty acid content of shrimp tissue.  The results of these studies demonstrated that the amount of fishmeal in shrimp feeds can be reduced, without sacrificing performance, by using traditional, solvent-extracted soybean meal and new sources of soybean protein, as long as the differences between the amounts of certain nutrients supplied by fishmeal and soy products are replaced from other ingredient sources.  Also, it was shown that the fatty acids in fish oil could be successfully replaced by the same fatty acids in algae meal.  Further advances in the technology used to produce algal meal are required, however, to make the substitution of algal meal for fish oil economically viable.
Ecuador is the largest shrimp producer in the Americas region and a major world producer, producing more than 230,000 metric tons (MT) of shrimp in 2012, which represents a potential consumption of more than 120,000 MT of U.S. soybean meal.  The country is a world leader in the genetics and nutrition of captive-raised shrimp besides being a pioneer in the use of probiotics.  Ecuador has positioned itself in 2013 to supply 15% of all captive-raised shrimp consumed worldwide, an opportunity made possible by the momentum of Ecuador’s shrimp industry and the collapse of its Asian competitors due to Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS).  USSEC’s continued support of the Ecuadorian shrimp industry is key in order to maintain and raise the current consumption levels of U.S. soybean meal.