Month: January 2021

The goal of MedAID is to increase the overall competitiveness and sustainability of the Mediterranean marine fish-farming sector throughout the whole value chain. In this context, the MedAID Project Work-package 6 (Improving business performance and development of strategic marketing plans), through the Task 6.5 “Estimation of the economic impact of improvements in production and marketing” aims to analyze the economic impact at the micro (firm/farm) level of some specific measures in the production and marketing areas to improve the financial performance of the European seabass and gilthead seabream aquaculture industry.

To carry out this analysis, we have designed a deterministic static model programmed with the spreadsheet Excel, which we have named MedAID Model for Economic Simulation (MMES), to simulate the annual income statement of an aquaculture facility (firm or farm). The model simulates in an independently way a grow-out facility for growing up seabass and seabream as well as a hatchery-nursery facility to culture seabass and seabream fry and larvae in the Mediterranean Sea. To obtain the baseline values of model parameters, we have used data from representative facilities from six European countries (Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain) collected in the survey conducted in MedAID’s WP1.Continue reading

MedAID Work Package 2 (Improving Zootechnical Performance) starts from the current context of knowledge in fish nutrition, and considers work on improvement in rearing conditions and feeding strategies fundamental to improve their related Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This is a multidisciplinary WP that looks for correlations among different parameters related to rearing conditions, environmental factors, feeding, growth, fish health and fish quality. Furthermore cultured fish are often exposed to stresses of different nature, which can cause a wide range of physiological alterations, reducing overall performance and fish welfare. Handling operations (e.g. vaccinations, treatments, grading or transport) can involve fish crowding during short times; fasting periods are a consequence of bad weather conditions, when feeding can be impossible, or to voluntary restrictions before harvesting and slaughtering fish; cold water temperature during winter periods can also challenge fish ability to feed and impose long fasting periods. Task 2.3 of MedAID has investigated different options for reducing fish stress by optimizing feed formulation or using functional feeds.

Deliverable 2.3. reports the results from WP2 Task 2.3. Optimize feeding strategies during unfavourable farming conditions, which aims to reduce feed conversion rate (FCR), improve health and stress tolerance by better rearing and feeding strategies for seabass and seabream juveniles.Continue reading