Sixth International Symposium on Tilapia in Aquaculture
Tilapia is often touted as the single most important aquaculture product in the 21st century. Global tilapia production has surpassed one million metric tons with more than 80% of the production coming from Asia. The Philippines is currently the third largest tilapia producer in the world and was the host country for the 6th International Symposium on Tilapia in Aquaculture (ISTA6) held in Manila from September 12-16 under the theme “New Dimensions in Farmed Tilapia”. About 400 participants attended four days of technical presentations, producer workshops, an industry trade show and technical tours. Technical sessions covered a number of topics including genetics, reproduction and sex control, nutrition, health management and diseases, etc. I chaired the session on Nutrition and also presented a review paper on lipid nutrition and alternative lipid sources in tilapia feeds. This report on ISTA6 is mainly written from a nutritionist point of view.
This was my first trip to Manila, Philippines. First impressions … traffic was a nightmare but the bangus and mangoes were excellent! Wing-Keong Ng, Ph.D. |
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Photo: Miles and miles of tilapia grow-out ponds in the Western Pampanga province in the Philippines
ISTA6 placed emphasis on the rapid advances in genetics and the development of advanced tilapia breeds. Much of advancement in tilapia breeding technology has originated from the Philippines. The GIFT (Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia) strain was developed in the Philippines under the coordination of ICLARM from 1987 to 1997. This strain was renamed as GET 2000 (Genetically Enhanced Tilapia) in the Philippines. Another breed called GET EXCEL 2002 has been developed through further selective breeding and recently introduced by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. The GET EXCEL 2002 strain was reported to show an additional gain in weight of 38.12 g to every 100 g of the GIFT strain. This has generated a lot of interest from tilapia producers from other countries attending the ISTA6
Despite rapid advances in the genetics and selective breeding of tilapia, Hans Magnus Gjoen from GenoMar, Norway in his paper “A new era: the merging of quantitative and molecular genetics-prospects for tilapia breeding programs” claimed out that these selective breeding advances may only contribute about 30% to the overall success of tilapia farming. He pointed out that advances in “Feeds and Nutrition” and “Technology/Management” contributed 36 and 34%, respectively, to the success of the salmon industry in Norway and is probably also true for the global tilapia industry. In comparing the pond performance of several strains of tilapia developed by GenoMar in various production systems in different countries, Sergio Zimmermann presented quantitative data which showed that feeds consistently rank as the most expensive input to the production system. Suffice to say, a good understanding of nutrition and feed management are critical components, if not the most important contributor, to the eventual success of any modern tilapia enterprise.
The introduction of superior strains in tilapia aquaculture makes interesting topics for nutrition research. Do these strains have different nutrient requirements? Do they grow faster because they eat more or do they converting nutrients into body mass more efficiently? Mamun Shamsuddin and his colleagues from the University of Hohenheim in Germany reported that GIFT strains are not metabolically superior to other Nile tilapia strains when fed a similar diet in respiration chambers. They speculated that the better growth performance of GIFT strains observed by some researchers (but not all) may be due to behavioral factors rather than to physiological growth potential. It should be pointed out that this study should be regarded as preliminary due to the relatively small number of fish used but it did make a good conversation topic at the conference.
The important role of feeds in the tilapia industry was also reflected in the trade exhibition, technical tours and other activities at ISTA6 which were sponsored by several Philippines-based feed companies. FEEDMIX and their associate company Fisher Farms were instrumental in organizing the technical tours to various tilapia production sites and feed mill. TATEH Aquafeeds sponsored the “Fiesta Tilapia” which was a cooking contest together with a tilapia barbeque for all ISTA6 participants. 