The paper presents the key problems on development and use of alternative dietary ingredients in aquaculture feed formulations in Southeast Asia based on the discussion and reviews during the Regional Technical Consultation. Policy recommendations are also presented.

Lao PDR has a population of 5.7 million, with a land area 236,800 sq. km. About 87.7% of land or catchment areas drains into Mekong River and contributes 35% of the Mekong River Basin flow. Almost all of Laos territory has an enormous importance for fishery resources, including its rich aquatic biodiversity.

A non-fish meal diet using plant and/or animal protein materials for yellowtail, Seriola quinqueradiata was developed. Three kinds of non-fish meal diets and a control diet containing 50% fish meal were processed. In the non-fish meal diets, the fish meal was replaced with commercially available plant or animal materials and supplemented with taurine and other ingredients for maintaining palatability. These diets were fed to one year old yellowtail (body weight: 753±96 g) in net cages. No significant differences in growth, daily weight gain, daily feed rate, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio were observed among fish given the diets. Non-fish meal diets were processed in a factory and their biological characteristics were studied such as uptake, stomach evacuation rate, and disease resistance. In addition, the diet palatability of each substitute protein source for fish was examined and ingredients that enhanced palatability of the non-fish meal diets were identified. Non-fish meal diets have the potential to support the growth of one year old yellowtail.

Aquaculture production has been practised in Cambodia for centuries where usually high value fish are grown in cages and fed low value fish. The use of low value fish or trash fish as feed also provides a storage mechanism where seasonally abundant and cheap fish are fed to high value species. In 2014, the production from aquaculture was 120,000 metric tons (mt), an increase of 25% from 2013, along with production from rice fields with an increase of 15% at 160,000 mt. Wild-harvested fish production in 2014 from small-scale fisheries and marine fisheries were 345,005 mt and 120,250 mt, respectively.

This paper reviewed fish catch production and estimated demand of aquafeed, fish meal, fish oil, soybean meal in Viet Nam for year 2013. Fish catch production was around 2.8 million metric tons (mt) while marine fish production was 1.9 million mt. Estimated marine trash fish production was 0.8 million mt with over 100 species including the dominant species anchovy (Stolephorus spp.), lizard fish (Saurida spp.) and pony fish (Leistognathus spp.). Approximately 0.5 million mt of marine trash fish was used for livestock, aquaculture and fish meal. Local marine fish meal consisting of protein content from 50 to 68% and catfish byproduct meal containing protein level from 50 to 60% were available. Based on FCR values of 5 major species including catfish, black tiger shrimp, white leg shrimp, Asian seabass, and snake head, aquafeed production was estimated at around 2.5 million mt. Marine fish oil/squid liver oil requirement was from 15.5 to 31 thousand mt. Fish meal demand was from 252 and 430 thousand mt. Almost all fish meal and marine fish oil used in aquafeed were imported. Moreover, soybean and other plant ingredients are potential alternative sources to replace fish meal and fish oil. Vietnamese farmers produced 168 thousand mt soybean while soybean demand amounts for aquafeed were from 693 to 1,140 thousand mt. In 2013, feedmills imported approximately 3 million mt of soybean meal (cake) from many countries in the world. Some other plant protein sources which were also imported, have good nutrient profiles but they contain some anti-nutritional factors. In the future, research on replacement of fish meal and fish oil with plant and animal by-product sources and feed additives for aquafeed should be studied. In particular, the management of local fish meal plants and capture fishery should be improved.

After rapid development for three decades, aquaculture has become the most important source of food fish in Asia, which currently supplies about 55 per cent of food fish for the people. The rapid growth of aquaculture production has been largely the result of intensification of aquaculture, which heavily relies on artificial feeding. The development of shrimp and high value marine and inland finfish culture has greatly increased the demand for feed ingredients from animal sources, particularly fish meal and fish oil and low value fish as direct feed. Due to various factors, the production of fish meal from whole fish has, overall, declined gradually since 2005 despite some fluctuations. This decrease has been only partly offset by a growing share of fish meal production obtained from fishery by-products. In contrast, the overall demand for fish meal continued to grow, pushing prices to historic high at US$1,919 per mt in January 2013, with an increase of 206 percent between January 2005 and January 2013. The soaring price of fish meal and fish oil has significantly affected the economic return from farm production that relies on the feed with high content of fish meal and fish oil or direct use of low value fish as feed. Furthermore, the increasing use of fish meal and fish oil from whole fish that can be direct source of animal food for people has raised major public concerns. Due to the population and economic growth, it is projected that in 2030 the Asia-Pacific region will need to increase fish production by 30 million mt, mainly through aquaculture. With the on-going process of aquaculture intensification and potential increase of high value commodities that require high protein in feed, it is anticipated that demand of Asian aquaculture for feed ingredients, particularly the protein source, will continue to increase. With the stagnant capture fish production and potentially more production to be directed for direct consumption by people, there will be a gap between the demand for feed ingredients and the supply of traditional sources such as fish meal, fish oil and fresh/frozen low value fish. How effectively the gap can be filled might determine the future of the aquaculture industry and whether the increasing demand of people for fish can be met effectively. Therefore, responsible and effective use of feed ingredients from animal sources of marine origin is the key to achieve sustainable growth of aquaculture for food security and nutrition, livelihood development and economic growth in the region. This paper provides a global and regional picture of use of marine origin animal feed and feed ingredients in aquaculture. It also briefly discussed major issues on the use of marine origin animal feed and feed ingredients in aquaculture. It briefly introduced the FAO policy and its global and regional initiatives that promote responsible and efficient use of feed ingredients from marine animal origin.

Fish meal (FM) is the best and main protein source for fish and shrimp feed because of the favorable amino acid profile, highly unsaturated fatty acids, palatability and absence of antinutritional factors. Aquaculture production has increased (about 8-9% a year) and is expected to increase further at the same rate to meet the demand for increase world population and health concern. In this connection, more aquafeed is required. Aquafeed rely much on fish meal (FM) and fish oil (FO) for the supply of major essential nutrients (essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, mineral and attractant). Therefore, more FM is required. However, world fish meal production has been relatively static in the last 15 years and is unlikely to increase further, coupled with public pressure on sustainable feed (fish in fish out ratio or fish meal independent ratio). Thus, levels of FM use in fish feed will have to be reduced and replaced by alternative protein sources for a sustainable increase in aquaculture production. Therefore, the identification and development of alternative feed ingredients that can replace FM is recognized as an international research priority. Consequently, several international integrated projects have been established in Europe, USA and Australia to reduce fish meal and fish oil in fish feeds. A European integrated project involving 14 countries, 32 partners with 4 major programs has been established to develop feeds from sustainable alternatives to fish meal and fish oil to produce safe, healthy seafood; assess the health benefits of fish farmed on the new diets; assess the safety of fish farmed on the new diets; assess perceptions regarding farmed fish and to devise a framework to communicate the risk and benefit of consuming farmed fish to the public and other stake holders. The strategic goal of this project is to tailor aquaculture feeds to produce high-quality fish with significantly reduced use of fish meal (FM) and fish oil (FO).

The total global production from capture fisheries has plateaued since the mid 90s. This stagnation in production or reduced productivity of the world’s coastal and marine wild fisheries is caused by overfishing and degradation of habitats through coastal development and destructive fishing methods. Reports have shown that if the current fishing trends continue, all of the commercial fisheries will have collapsed by 2050. To boost production, scientists, fisheries managers, government agencies, and NGOs have been looking at ways of enhancing fish stocks. Replenishing depleted stocks may be done by regulating fishing effort, restoring degraded nursery and spawning habitats or through resource enhancement. Resource enhancement using individuals reared in aquaculture facilities or seed stocks abundant in the wild is becoming a popular method of supplementing depleted stocks. It is one of the many strategies that could help address the decreasing fisheries production in the wild. A brief history of resource enhancement, the aquatic species released in the different countries in the region, the reasons for releasing stocks, and the issues involved, are discussed briefly in this paper. Among the main reasons for resource enhancement are to increase production or enhance stocks and increase food supply and/or family income. Other reasons include protection of endemic and maintenance of endangered species, rehabilitation of degraded natural habitats and for recreation fisheries, among others. Age or size of seeds, seed quality, genetics, governance, economics, biodiversity conservation, politics, and the introduction of exotics are among the resource enhancement issues identified in the region.

The Sagay Marine Reserve (SMR) under the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS) is one of the many reef areas in the Visayan Sea in the central part of the Philippine archipelago. The SMR covers 32,000 ha or 59% of coastal waters north of the mainland Sagay City. Donkey’s ear abalone is one of the most sought mollusks traded by small-scale fishers in Molocaboc Island located within the SMR. High buying prices in local and international markets compared with other fish catch motivated fishers to target abalone and caused its overfishing. SEAFDEC/AQD, with support from the Government of Japan Trust Fund (JTF), conducted a community-based stock enhancement through a tri-party collaboration between the fisherfolks of Molocaboc Island, the Sagay local government at the village and city levels, and SEAFDEC/AQD. The study showed that the decision and implementation of stock enhancement and the definition of its objectives and relevance involves the strong engagement with stakeholders. For over a period of eight years (2007-2014), we learned that stock enhancement necessarily involve high financial investments and enormous transaction cost over a long period of time which are often not affordable to local governments of coastal communities in Southeast Asia. Thus, community-based collaborations may help achieve enhancement and restocking goals.

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) has brought financial losses to all shrimp farming systems, and lately the “Early Mortality Syndrome” (EMS) or more accurately termed Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND) have added to the threats to shrimp farming in South Asia. Most studies on WSSV have been done in tanks with species other than Penaeus monodon. Several studies of RESCOPAR aimed to study WSSV epidemiology in on-farm situations and find ecological means of disease prevention or control. To achieve these goals experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal and case studies were carried out by PhDs in Indonesia, the Philippines (Tendencia, 2012) and Vietnam.