September 2011 21

Shrimp Aquaculture Research 2010 Federal Initiative Accomplishments

Purpose/Objectives Research and development at the Texas AgriLife Research Mariculture Labs at Port Aransas and Flour Bluff to provide the U.S. marine shrimp farming industry with reliable captive supplies of high-health and genetically improved shrimp stocks; advanced shrimp disease diagnostic and treatment methods; practical low-fish- meal and low-fish-oil shrimp diets; improved feed nutrient quality with lower cost; “environmentally friendly,” biosecure, cost-effective, sustainable technologies for superintensive production in raceways under greenhouses; and improved economic viability of superintensive zero-exchange shrimp production systems.

Accomplishments/Impacts • Demonstrated that feed additives such as prebiotics, acidifiers, and essential oils that optimize the gut flora also increase growth rate, immune response, and stress resistance. • Demonstrated that biofloc from tilapia waste produced in bioreactors can provide partial replacement of fish meal in shrimp diets in clear-water systems. Demonstrated that shrimp biofloc could replace 5% of the fish meal in a 30% fish meal diet in same system. • Demonstrated that chelated divalent cations, Zn and Cu, with methionine are not sensitive to phytic acid in commercial shrimp feeds, thus reducing the dietary requirement from 180–200 parts per million to 30–50 ppm. Determined that the dietary methionine requirement for shrimp in clear-water systems is at least 0.8% and that good shrimp growth (>2.5 g/wk) can be obtained with diets containing at least Lead Agency 0.63% methionine in natural productivity. Texas AgriLife Research Partners • Demonstrated that Pacific white shrimp postlarvae from a disease-resistant line University of Southern Mississippi’s gain higher final weight than postlarvae from a fast-growing line when stocked at Gulf Coast Research Laboratory; 3,500 PL/m3 in a 52-day nursery trial under no water exchange. Demonstrated a The Oceanic Institute, Hawaii; Tufts University, Massachusetts; South significant density effect on final weight of the fast-growing postlarvae when stocked Carolina Department of Natural at a density of 2,375 PL/m3 compared to 3,500 PL/m3 in same type of trial. Resources, University of Arizona; Nicholls State University, Louisiana • Demonstrated that Taeration® system can maintain excellent water mixing and Federal Funding oxygenation with good survival (90%) and a biomass load of more than 6 kg/m3 of USDA National Institute of Food and marketable size shrimp (>25.6 g) under no water exchange and without the use of Agriculture pure oxygen, airlift pumps, or air diffusers. Jobs Generated 24 FTEs • Demonstrated that glandless cottonseed protein concentrate (GCSPC) could Nonfederal Funds Leveraged $229,000 replace 67% of the fish meal in a 30% fish meal diet without significantly affecting growth and food conversion ratio if dietary lipid was maintained through menhaden oil supplement (avg. growth rate of 2.5 g/wk) and that GCSPC could replace 33% of the fish meal when dietary lipid was maintained through cottonseed oil supplement (avg. growth rate of 2.6 g/wk). • Developed a diet in which fish meal and fish oil were replaced with GCSPC and cottonseed oil; shrimp grew an average of 1.8 g/wk.