Food additive for sustainably farmed prawns

Following 10 years of research and development, CSIRO scientists have perfected the prawn feed additive Novacq, giving prawn lovers access to more sustainably farmed prawns that still taste great.

Farmed prawns fed with the additive have been found to grow on average 30% faster, are healthier and can be produced with no fish products in their diet, making them “even better for consumers, the environment and prawn farmers,” according to CSIRO’s Dr Nigel Preston.

Dr Preston has been working with the $75 million Australian prawn farming industry for over 25 years and says this is a game changer for the industry; “a major achievement for the sustainability of Australia’s aquaculture industry as prawns fed this diet are not only a top-quality product and reach market size faster, they also no longer need to be fed with any products from wild fishery resources.”

Until now, Australian prawn farmers have needed to feed their prawns with a pellet that includes some sustainably sourced fish meal or fish oil, in order to ensure that the prawns grew fast and were a healthy and high-quality product. Novacq, however, is a natural food source based on the smallest organisms in the marine environment - the marine microbes which are the foundation of the marine food pyramid. It works as “a bioactive and vitamin supplement all rolled into one,” said Dr Preston.

Australian-owned company Ridley AgriProducts has now taken a licence to produce and distribute Novacq in Australia and several South-East Asian countries. Bob Harvey, General Manager Aquafeed from Ridley AgriProducts, said this means the Australian industry will soon have the opportunity to use the Novacq feed additive to boost domestic prawn farm productivity.

“We’ve conducted multiple laboratory-based trials and, in conjunction with CSIRO and a great customer of ours, Australian Prawn Farms, we have proven the effects of Novacq when commercially grown, added into a commercial prawn feed and fed to black tiger prawns in multiple full-scale, commercial-sized ponds,” said Harvey.

“Adding Novacq into even the best-performing prawn diets on the market, we proved a significant incremental growth rate and food conversion rate improvement.”

Matt West, Operations Manager of Australian Prawn Farms, saw the results after four months of testing the feed additive on black tiger prawns. “What I saw on my farm was a clear incremental growth compared to the high-quality diets that were used as a control for the large-scale trials we recently conducted at our farm,” he said.

According to Dr Preston, the achievement “solidifies aquaculture as a sustainable source of protein to help meet the ever-growing demand for food.” He said this is especially significant given that land-based animal protein sources are often affected by drought or flood, but Australia’s saltwater industry is “entirely droughtproof and flood proof.”

CSIRO presented its test results today at the 2013 Ridley AquaFeed Australian Prawn and Barramundi Farmers Conference in Queensland.