In this issue:

The 15th meeting of the Asia Regional Advisory Group on Aquatic Animal Health; a regional consultation on responsible production and use of feed in aquaculture; a report on the Giant Prawn 2017 conference; a preview of the new NACA website; and new initiatives on a very serious emerging issue - reducing the human and animal health risks from development of anti-microbial resistance in the aquaculture industry.

The fourth major international event on giant freshwater prawns was organised by the Asian Institute of Technology from 20-24 March 2007. The conference, organised by Salin Krishna and Michael New, built on a series of highly successful events that trace back to the very beginnings of the industry. The first conference, Giant Prawn 1980 brought together all those involved in freshwater prawn research and farming for the first time and set many priorities for future research and development.

Feed is the most expensive component of an aquaculture enterprise. Successful cultured fish production requires optimisation of feeding practices to ensure the most economically effective growth rates. Reducing feed costs for culture practices can be achieved by taking the advantage of restricted feeding strategies. Under a restricted feeding regime fish convert a greater portion of feed to body weight. Case studies of restricted feeding are presented for several species and the costs savings and other benefits are briefly discussed.

FAO, NACA and the Thai Department of Fisheries convened a Regional Consultation Responsible Production and Use of Feed and Feed Ingredients for Sustainable Growth of Aquaculture in Asia-Pacific in Bangkok, 7-9 March 2017. The objective of the consultation was to review the current status of aquaculture feed production and use, demand and supply, sourcing of ingredients, government policies and institutional support, ongoing progress and development gaps. The meeting brought together government and private sector representatives.

Due to the recent increase in aquaculture and the rising demand for marine ingredients for use in pelleted feeds, there is concern that aquaculture is contributing to the over-exploitation of fishing stocks. There is a growing need for aquaculture enterprises to be able to demonstrate responsible practices, including the source of any marine ingredients used in the compound feed. Responsible sourcing can be demonstrated by purchashing ingredients that have been approved under the IFFO RS standard.

Thai Union Feedmill's initiatives to address sustainability issues in aquaculture feed ingredients are discussed in this presentation.

Over the years, there have been two growing sustainability concerns with shrimp supply chain, namely human trafficking and environmental impacts. Solving these two issues can sometime result in conflicting agendas. This summary outlines CPF’s approach and experience in dealing with the two issues. The most difficult challenge in our experience is in building trust and understanding between the stakeholders, including governments and regulators, fisherfolk, commercial fishermen, suppliers and buyers. However, we feel that CPF is now a pioneer in our programs.

The Department of Fisheries is responsible for aquaculture sustainability, including food safety, animal health and welfare, environmental integrity, social and community welfare and regulation of fishing activities across the whole aquaculture supply chain. The Feed Quality Control and Development Division is responsible for registration and certification of feed formulas and monitoring of feed quality. In addition to input controls, end products are also subject to inspection and monitoring, certification and traceability systems.

China is the world's largest producer of aquaculture feeds. With the development of aquaculture, the feed industry has inevitably faced some challenges in promoting update of commercial feeds, pollution, use of trash fish, fish meal and fish oil issues, provision of accurate nutrition and feeding, antibiotic residues, food safety, and so on. In order to balance economic and environmental issues the Chinese Government released its 13th Five-year Plan last year. Trends and policy changes relevant to aquaculture are discussed.

Decisions on feeding often diverge from scientifically reasonable optima, resulting in excessive nutrient input, low feeding efficiency, self-pollution, high production cost and negative environmental impacts. Innovations in feeding technologies and farming practices to improve feed utilisation efficiency are crucially important for sustainability of aquaculture. In this presentation the author tries to present some innovative feeding manipulations at farm level, examine some farming systems and practices that favour higher ecological efficiency, and share some thoughts on innovations at farm level.