Fisheriesand aquaculture make crucial contributions to the world’s well-being and
prosperity. In the last five decades, world fish food supply has outpaced
global population growth, and today fish constitutes an important source of
nutritious food and animal protein for much of the world’s population. In
addition, the sector provides livelihoods and income, both directly and
indirectly, for a significant share of the world’s population. Aquaculture’s
success and continuing growth have been more important for our world. The
world’s population is projected to reach 9.3B in 2050 according to the medium
variant of UN projections. Fish is a key source of protein, essential
amino-acids and minerals, especially in low-income, food-deficit countries.
Aquaculture growth has averaged 8% per year since the late 1970s (faster than
human population growth), bringing fish production to a total of 142 Mt in 2008.
About 115Mt are currently directed to human use, providing an estimated per
capita supply of about 17 kg person-1yr -1, an all time high.
The aquaculture growth has relied
heavily on fishmeal and fish oil. Fishmeal is an internationally traded, high
protein powder, which results from the industrial processing of small pelagic
fish (e.g. anchovy, sardine, capelin, and herring). It is a key component of
the aqua feed of salmon, trout, shrimp and other
farmed marine species
supplying essential amino acids, fatty acids
and other micronutrients.
Due to these properties, FM has become one of the primary components of
commercial feed formulations. The demand for FM in aquatic feeds has been
estimated to account for 31% to 42.5% of
total world FM production.
However, as a result of a decreasing supply of fishery byproducts and concerns
over its quality, the aquaculture industry is now actively investigating alternatives
nutrient sources.
In the last two decades, although worldwide FM production remained at a
relatively stable level, it still could not match the rapid worldwide development
of aquaculture.
The cost of FM increased constantly, which caused the price of commercial feed
increase sharply. Thus, there is an urgent need to find alternative protein
sources to make up for the shortage of FM and to secure a stable supply
for commercial diets.
Now a day, the considerable interest and research have been focused on the
developing unicellular organisms such as yeast, molds, bacteria, microalgae and
fungi as additives to aquaculture feeds.
