USSEC’s Soy in Aquaculture program recently conducted a seminar on sustainable tilapia cage farming, disease prevention and health management in the Philippines. More than 85 representatives from tilapia cage operators, the Taal Lake Aquaculture Alliance, Inc., government agencies and feed mills attended the seminar. Hsiang Pin Lan, USSEC contractor; Levy Loreto Manalac, USSEC aquaculture technical manager; and Basilisa Reas, Ph.D., USSEC animal utilization technical manager, discussed disease prevention, identifying symptoms on the farm and health management for tilapia farms.
Lan focused on the health management aspect of tilapia cage farming and its importance in maximizing production. He also discussed the proper use of extruded soy floating feeds and the 90 percent satiation feeding technique. Manalac introduced USSEC’s upcoming activities in the Philippines and shared the production benefits of using extruded floating feeds compared to sinking steamed pellet feeds. Reas discussed global supply and demand of raw feed materials and how that impacts the prices of major aqua feed ingredients. Reas also promoted the advantages of using U.S. soy meal as compared to soy meal from other origins.
Government agencies in attendance included the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Municipal Agriculturalist Office of Talisay, Batangas; feed mills included San Miguel Foods, Inc., Santeh Feeds Corp., Feedmix, and New Hope Feeds.