USSEC recently provided technical assistance to eight trout farms located in Lake Titicaca and Lake Lagunillas, Puno Department, Peru.  During this trip, USSEC consultant Gina Conroy met with the farms’ balanced feed supplier to discuss the health status of the fish at the trout farms and hatcheries in the Lake Titicaca region.  Ms. Conroy also visited several trout farming operations using cages and examined trout samples to detect and identify fish health problems.  She gave recommendations for improving techniques for farming; fish health management to improve production systems; the importance of water quality; the importance of changing, cleaning and drying the nets properly; and explained how to calculate the doses of antibiotic to administer with fish feed.

The trout farms in this region use balanced feed produced with U.S. soybean meal.  During the visits to these farms, Ms. Conroy promoted the use of balanced rather than locally produced feedstuff as this practice could lead to many problems in trout production.