Climate change is significantly impacting fish farms, which are facing temperatures that exceed the optimal ones for different farmed species and are often accompanied by reduced oxygen availability. To help farmers manage these situations, Skretting offers HTO2, a functional feed line with a specific nutritional profile.
Climate change is significantly impacting fish farms, which are facing temperatures that exceed the optimal ones for different farmed species and are often accompanied by reduced oxygen availability. To help farmers manage these situations, Skretting offers HTO2, a functional feed line with a specific nutritional profile.
A feed that is suitable for every situation does not exist, and over the years we have worked to identify the specific nutritional needs of fish in different environmental conditions and to develop solutions that help the animals when these are not optimal.
High temperatures are a cause of stress for fish, which reduces feeding because they do not have enough oxygen available and because gut function decreases. The HTO2 line improves the animals' ability to use the little oxygen available, has positive effects on digestive function, and balances the effects of oxidative stress. As a result, fish return to feeding, resulting in improved growth and conversion. The HTO2 Skretting line is recommended when temperatures exceed 18°C for rainbow trout, 26°C for bass, and 28°C for bream and/or when dissolved oxygen levels fall to 4 mg/l.
These are conditions that are becoming the rule in our seas in summer, and the farmers who have tried the HTO2 line have verified in the field the benefits of specific feeding.
Luca Turchetto Technical Advisor at Skretting Italia adds, "Trout farmers are increasingly facing limiting temperatures, often made more dangerous by water shortages, and with HTO2 they manage to feed the animals well, keeping them healthy." The HTO2 solution that Skretting offers for the summer period is part of the range of functional feeds developed in recent years thanks to major investments in R&D, which amount to 15 million euros globally. "Innovation is part of Skretting's DNA," concludes Umberto Luzzana, "and it allows us to always be at our customers' side to help them face the new challenges facing the aquaculture supply chain, and to be ready for the new requirements in terms of sustainability".
For further information:
HTO2 trout brochure
HTO2 Sea Bass and Sea Bream Brochure