An Innovate UK project is exploring the use of a zooplankton as a replacement for fishmeal in young broiler diets. If successful, the project partners believe the novel protein could be useful in other farmed species.
The Farmed Marine Proteins for Poultry Feed study is led by Aquanzo, together with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the UK Agri-Tech Centre. Aquanzo was established in 2022 at St Andrews to explore the conversion of wasted nutrients from processing sectors such as dairy and malt into valuable marine ingredients through farming the artemia zooplankton in a marine environment.
The project will assess the feasibility of using artemia meal – Artemeal – as a novel protein source to replace fishmeal in young broiler feed. It will monitor their health and growth as well as the reduction in environmental impact compared to fishmeal. Aquanzo sees potential to produce thousands of tonnes of Artemeal each year at scale, with sufficient in the next five years for 10% of the UK poultry starter diet requirement.
While fishmeal is one of the best sources of nutrients for young farm animals – especially chicks and piglets) – and in aquaculture, fishing has a significant impact on the environment and sustainability, note the partners. Additionally, farmed livestock production has grown faster than the availability of marine proteins, with the result that costs have increased.
Aquanzo says it is developing technologies to sustainably produce the marine zooplankton artemia at scale, and on land, and to process it into marine protein ingredients for the feed sector. It claims this will benefit feed manufacturers through access to like-for-like – or even better – products than fishmeal, and which can be tailored, are sustainably produced in a circular economy process and are of constant quality with reduced emissions compared to marine proteins.
The company has conducted a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) of the Artemeal ingredient. It says farmed marine proteins, alongside novel ingredients such as insects and single cell proteins, will have a place in the more sustainable feed industry of the future.
The project will develop a prototype artemia production facility and scaled-up Artemeal production process, together with a set of reports and databases summarising the main findings.
“We showed that fishmeal can successfully be upgraded with locally farmed marine ingredients in chick diets, proving a sustainable long-term solution to harvesting wild resources,” says Remi Gratacap, chief executive of Aquanzo.
SRUC researchers Jos Houdijk and Marwa Hussein add: “It was great to observe that birds fed Artemeal during the first days of life outperformed those fed fishmeal and that this carried through to being heavier at harvest. These benefits concurred with beneficial impacts on gut microbiome and immune organs, suggesting a great future of Artemeal for robust, resilient poultry production.”
An Innovate UK project is exploring the use of a zooplankton as a replacement for fishmeal in young broiler diets. If successful, the project partners believe the novel protein could be useful in other farmed species. The Farmed Marine Proteins for Poultry Feed study…
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