Salmon feed. (Photo: Cargill)

Cargill and EWOS inaugurate landmark fish health centre

Cargill and EWOS -- the brand with which Cargill trades its fish feed products in Chile -- have marked a significant milestone in addressing fish health and disease prevention through the inauguration of one of the world's largest and most significant research centres of its kind.

Located in the Pacific coastal-town of Colaco, Chile, the Cargill Innovation Centre is geared specifically to improve health and wellbeing for salmon.

The innovation centre will serve as a research hub of internationally-renowned experts from EWOS and Cargill, who will focus on developing functional fish diets and studying diseases that affect farmed salmon in Chile and other countries focused on aquaculture.

Through the Cargill investment and the support of Corfo, a Chilean developmental agency, the innovation centre will have more than 30 scientists and aquaculture experts.

As part of their research, the scientists will create tools and additional controls to fight the two major health challenges in the salmon industry. The first one is SRS, caused by a bacterium responsible for 79 per cent of the mortality of salmon and the main reason for antibiotics use in Chile. The second one is Caligidosis, caused by Caligus or "sea lice," a parasite that attaches to salmon skin, affecting its health. These diseases have contributed to significant fish industry sector losses.

With the investment performed -- about USD 10.5 million --, the Cargill Innovation Centre in Chile will be able to conduct 4-5 times more studies than before, increasing the global capacity for fish health research by 30 per cent.

"Having our own fish health center will accelerate our product development programs, allowing us to quickly develop new customer solutions," said Einar Wathne, president, Cargill Aqua Nutrition. "We will be able to dig much deeper into the primary diseases and combat the risks they create for salmon producers, and also apply our learnings across multiple species of fish."

"Proper fish nutrition is an excellent tool to help control disease," said Simon Wadsworth, global fish health manager for Cargill Aqua Nutrition "A fish consumes some 30,000 pellets in its lifetime and that means there are the same number of opportunities to manage the specimens – with no manipulation – to help the sustainability of the industry."

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