Agri-EPI and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) recently paid a visit to Rastech Research CIC at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. The purpose of the visit was to conduct a partner site visit to the Aquanzo Production System facilities. During the visit, the attendees were given an introduction to RASTech, followed by a detailed tour of the Aquanzo system. They also had the opportunity to meet the production team and witness the new artemia grow-out system in action.
Aquanzo is currently running a 24-month project that is funded by Innovate UK-DEFRA in collaboration with Agri-EPI Centre and SRUC. The project aims to develop technologies for farming a new source of marine protein, artemia, sustainably at scale and on land. Artemia is a marine zooplankton that is being explored as a potential source of protein for animal feed. The project is investigating the use of different agricultural by-products to produce artemia and studying its nutritional benefits on poultry gut health, lifetime growth, and performance.
One of the main goals of this project is to address the damaging environmental and cost impacts of harvesting marine ingredients from the wild for use in commercial young animal feeding. By farming artemia on land, the project aims to reduce the reliance on wild-caught marine ingredients, which can have negative consequences for marine ecosystems.
Lee Cocker, Project Manager of the Farmed Marine Protein project at Agri-EPI, expressed his excitement about the opportunity to support the farming of artemia as a potential new source of marine protein. He highlighted the importance of the project in terms of sustainability and the positive impact it can have on the aquaculture and livestock feed sectors.
At the industrial scale, Aquanzo is expecting to achieve production capacity of thousands of metric tonnes of artemia meal per year per industrial facility. This demonstrates the potential for large-scale production of artemia as a sustainable source of marine protein.
Agri-EPI is playing a crucial role in guiding this project. They are providing life cycle analysis, which involves measuring the environmental sustainability at each stage of the project’s development. In addition, Agri-EPI is responsible for project management, ensuring that the project progresses smoothly and achieves its objectives.
The visit to Rastech Research CIC and the Aquanzo Production System facilities provided an opportunity for Agri-EPI and SRUC to witness the progress of the project and see the production system in action. It is clear that the project is making significant strides towards its goal of developing sustainable methods for farming artemia on land.
Overall, this project has the potential to revolutionize the way marine protein is produced for animal feed. By farming artemia on land, it can reduce the environmental impact of wild-caught marine ingredients and provide a more sustainable solution for the aquaculture and livestock feed industries. The progress made so far is promising, and it will be interesting to see how this project continues to develop in the future.