Development of Major Aquaculture Nutrition and Food

This project centers closely on the development of three waves of our country’s sea animal husbandry (shrimps, shellfishes, and fishes), systematically conducts research on nutrition of representative animals, and at the same time develops and promotes fodder. Prawns, abalone, weevers, and large yellow croakers were chosen as the research objects, because of their great significance to the national economy and because they are representative of ecological distribution and nutrition physiology. Systematically study of nutrition physiology has led to the formation of the database for nutritional needs and foodstuff bioavailability.


Research, such as protein source substitution, reduction of nitrogen & phosphorus emissions and residues from heavy metals, and optimization fodder technology were carried out. We have also cultivated fingerlings for mariculture animals and developed environmentally-friendly efficient diets and biological bait rich in EPA and DHA. The immunopotentiator and microecologics developed by the project have promoted the immunity of cultivated animals and reduced the use of antibiotics, which promises the safety of the consumption of the products. In addition, concept and technology of pollution-free manufacturing were also introduced into the fish feed production. As a result, it helps promote the rapid development of our modern intensified mariculture by breaking the bottleneck of “man cooperates with the feed”.


The cost of Hengxing, Yuehai, and Haixin series aquatic feed products we developed were reduced by 10% to 15%, while the feed efficiency improved by 15-30%, and nitrogen and phosphorus emission of the feed reduced by 10-15%. The use of nonspecific immunopotentiator and microecologics in the feed has lowered the H2S and chemical oxygen consumption of the pond, actively suppressing the multiplication of vibrio, and improving the survival rate by 15-25%. Content of high degree unsaturated fattyacid in the isolated and screened marine microalgae was increased by 2-3 times. Metabolism and distribution regularities of cadmium in fish were illuminated, and a safety limit was proposed.


Research in development, promotion, protection, and improvement have led to six national patents for invention, and the achievements have been promoted in over 50 feed enterprises all over the country. The value from 2003 to 2005 created by six large-scale enterprises alone, including Hengxing, Yuehai, Haixin, and Guanhua, has exceeded 3.8 billion yuan, with taxes of more than 0.36 billion yuan.


These achievements have won three first prizes for progress in science and technology at the provincial or ministerial level, and one first prize for natural science. Over 160 theses were published, among which 42 were included in SCI or EI, and 130 were referenced by SCI theses of other investigators, thus enriching the content of comparative animal nutrition. We acted as editor- in- chief of Pollution-free Preparation Technology of Fish Feed in the “Action Plan of Pollution-free Food”of the Ministry of Agriculture and the first textbook for colleges in our country, Aquatic Animal Nutrition and Feed Science. Over 100 postgraduates have been educated, along with large numbers of such high-level R&D talents as young teachers and researchers. Meanwhile, large-scale training and promotion activities were carried out, pushing forward our technical progress and development in the field of feed industry.


This achievement has won the Second Prize of the National Award for Progress in Science and Technology in 2006.