FEATURE

A technological innovation for

crustacean aquaculture

AQUAVI Met-Met

During the week of Asian Pacific Aquaculture 2016 in

Surabaya, Indonesia, Evonik Industries conducted the
official launch of AQUAVI Met-Met. AQUAVI Met-Met
is a dipeptide of two DL-methionine molecules which is
used as an aquaculture feed additive.
AQUAVI Met-Met is Evonik Industries first peptide
specifically developed for the aqua industry as it has low
water solubility and therefore the leaching of the feed
nutrients can be minimised. This is especially important
for aquafeeds for shrimp and prawn as they are bottom
feeders with different feeding habits and digestive systems
to fish. Feed pellets and extrudates must be stable in the
water to ensure the dipeptide breaks down and methionine
becomes available for protein synthesis at exactly the right
time.
In 2015, no less than half of the fish, crustaceans, and
shellfish consumed globally originated from aquaculture.
Fishmeal being part of the feed as a protein source is a
significant cost factor for farmers. Supplementation with
amino acids allows significant reduction of the proportion
of fishmeal in feeds.
With AQUAVI Met-Met, the dipeptide of DLmethionine which has extremely low water solubility, feed
formulation can be preserved in the water and enhanced
in the gut. As feeding trials in many countries have shown,
AQUAVI Met-Met is more than twice as efficient as DLmethionine.
This increases the efficiency and sustainability of shrimp
farming.
AQUAVI Met-Met has already been registered as a feed
additive in many countries, with more to follow. The new
methionine source will initially be available for shrimp and
crustaceans but its efficiency is currently being tested for
other species.
The following is the presentation given on the morning
of the official press launch in Surabaya by Galle Husser,
Evonik Industries Director of Industry Marketing for
Aquaculture.

think we are all aligned on the fact that

the world population is growing, and it is
growing fast. On top of that, the income is
also increasing per capita, meaning that more
and more people have access to animal protein
sources.
I think that Asia is a wonderful example,
showing that fish is important for human
nutrition worldwide. It is actually the very first
protein source.
If we look at the growth, we see that fish consumption is
growing very fast, as fast as poultry.
But there is one market that is growing even faster, and
that is crustaceans. We are quite lucky with fish and shrimp
because half of the production does not need to be farmed,
but rather can be caught in the wild.
We know that this trend is going up, therefore we have to
be careful, because the natural resources are limited, with
most of the stocks are already depleted.
So we need to find alternatives, we cannot feed our farmed
fish or farmed shrimp with marine ingredients.
There is a famous ratio called fish-in, fish-out and that
calculates how much fish you need to produce one ton of
farmed fish. Having this consumption trend in mind, it must
be less than one, or else it does not work.
We have a very good example of this in aquaculture,
actually the Salmon industry and animal production in
general, has given us an example of how its possible to
completely replace marine ingredients with vegetable and
alternative raw materials in feed.
So the question when it comes to shrimp, it is not whether
we reduce fish meal or fish oil, but rather it is a case of when
and how.
Today our feeds, depending on the region, still contain at
least 20 percent marine raw materials, and we believe that
in the very near future that this proportion can be reduced
significantly. The salmon industry has done it for a very
demanding animal. There is no good reason why we cannot
do that for the shrimp industry.
But that requires know-how, products, and innovations in
order for us to do so.
At the value chain level, innovation is important. At Evonik,

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our role is as a feed additive provider for the feed mills,

and to give them tools to innovate and to make shrimp
feed more efficient and also more sustainable.
What we realised when we looked at shrimp was
that there were some specificities. Specificities in their
feeding behavior, and in their digestive tract that we have
to take into account when we develop products which are
designed for shrimp.
The first element is that the shrimp will take some time
to find the pellet in the water, and then it will nibble the
pellet for several minutes. This makes the shrimp feed
one of the most technical feeds, because it has to be
water-stable.
The second element is that the digestive tract for
shrimp is quite different to what we know with gastric
or other animals, it has no proper stomach and it is very
important that the nutrients are released in a sustained
way in the digestive tract.
Having that in mind, in 2007 the Evonik team started working
on a solution for an efficient methionine source. In our research
and development department they looked at many different
options, you can use regular methionine sources that work but
you need a buffer.
Then they looked at coated solutions with methionine, but the
issue was that with coated products was that per kilogram of
product you have less of your active substance as it is diluted.
As such it has never been the most efficient solution. It is also
difficult to have a coated product which is stable in the very
demanding and challenging feed processing environment.
The last option, which was the one that was selected, was to work
on a derivative of methionine, this is the option that proved to work.

The product we are talking about AQUAVI Met-Met is the

dipeptide of the methionine. The reason why it works in shrimp is
quite simple, the product is not soluble in the water. It means that
when you add it in the feed, it also stays in the feed, so you really
can control what the shrimp gets to eat.
The second element for this product is that in one bag you have
four products, four different so-called isomers. The shrimp can
digest each of them, however, it takes a different time to digest
each of these four isomers.
Finally, in shrimp feed we know it is not only about nutrition or
biochemical properties, particle size is also very important. That
is why the particle size of this product meets the specifications of
below 300 microns.

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