Our progress

No use.

Specific SDG sub-targets addressed

Initially there was no explicit mention of AMR in the SDG sub-targets. Through various advocacy measures over the years, AMR was recognised as a threat to people’s livelihoods, lives and environment. In March 2020, a new SDG sub-target was created to address AMR: SDG sub-target 3d2: “Percentage of bloodstream infections due to the presence of selected antimicrobial resistant organisms. 

Our progess

No use.

Specific SDG sub-targets addressed

Initially there was no explicit mention of AMR in the SDG sub-targets. Through various advocacy measures over the years, AMR was recognised as a threat to people’s livelihoods, lives and environment. In March 2020, a new SDG sub-target was created to address AMR: SDG sub-target 3d2: “Percentage of bloodstream infections due to the presence of selected antimicrobial resistant organisms.

Progress

No use.

Specific SDG sub-targets addressed

Initially there was no explicit mention of AMR in the SDG sub-targets. Through various advocacy measures over the years, AMR was recognised as a threat to people’s livelihoods, lives and environment. In March 2020, a new SDG sub-target was created to address AMR: SDG sub-target 3d2: “Percentage of bloodstream infections due to the presence of selected antimicrobial resistant organisms.

Our progress

In 2021 Skretting produced used 2,137 kg of CIA active ingredient. All of the feeds sold were prescription based.

Specific SDG sub-targets addressed

Initially there was no explicit mention of AMR in the SDG sub-targets. Through various advocacy measures over the years, AMR was recognised as a threat to people’s livelihoods, lives and environment. In March 2020, a new SDG sub-target was created to address AMR: SDG sub-target 3d2: “Percentage of bloodstream infections due to the presence of selected antimicrobial resistant organisms.

Vietnamese shrimp farmers are becoming increasingly aware of the harmful effects of improper antibiotic use and AMR consequences for the aquaculture industry on animals, the environment and on human health.

Mr. Trieu, from Bac Lieu, is a Skretting customer who wanted to stop using antibiotics under the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standard, to affirm product quality and commit to providing safe products to consumers. To enhance efficiency, he replaced the old farming processes with Skretting Vietnam’s SUCCESS program. He has seen the effectiveness of applying the SUCCESS program with a set of recommendations including biosecurity, input water treatment, pond management process (feed, environment and shrimp health) and output waste treatment process during the production cycle.

“The SUCCESS protocol helped me to build the perfect barrier around the farm to protect shrimp from pathogens that I have encountered in previous seasons,” he said. “For the first time in my life, I have been able to produce shrimp without the use of antibiotics.” He also mentioned the effectiveness of the feed quality when switching to Skretting products. “My shrimp after 93 days are growing faster, are healthier and are harvested in a shorter period of time with a successful result.”

Skretting Vietnam continues to support shrimp farmers with nutritional solutions, technical services, and trainings on responsible use of antibiotics and innovations to feeding an antibiotic-free future.

In our search for tools to support animal health, Skretting entered a joint collaboration with a company focusing on bacteriophages called Proteon Pharmaceuticals.

Bacteriophages, commonly known as phages, are micro-organisms naturally present in the environment. Bacteriophages have a highly specific mode of action and as such they are safe for humans and animals. They are considered an effective tool for fine tuning the microbiome and limit the proliferation of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. In conclusion, these are a tangible and sustainable solution for health management and can safeguard animal health whilst promoting the farm’s productivity.

Proteon Pharmaceuticals has worked with bacteriophage technology for over 15 years, and has developed products to help most animal production industries. Their mission is to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics, promote animal health and minimise economical losses for farmers.

Proteon developed a phage product that Skretting is currently distributing in India aiming to support heath management of farmed fish. This product has promising potential in our market and can be used on a wide variety of freshwater and seawater fish species.

In addition, Skretting and Proteon together are co-developing a product to support health management in shrimp. Shrimp face numerous health challenges caused by viruses, parasites and bacteria. For the latter, they’re usually found naturally in the environment and can cause health issues in some specific situations. The health issues translate to a loss in the shrimp farming industry of billions of USD dollars yearly. Hence, we put this high on the agenda in our R/D efforts going forward.

By developing tools to support animal health, we want to contribute first-hand to the fight against AMR and envision a sustainable future for the aquaculture production industry.

Skretting Latin America, as part of the food chain, has a solid mandate to produce non-medicated aquaculture feed, supporting the requirement of global seafood markets from our customers. To deliver on this end goal, we highlight the proper way of feeding, using best practices, ensuring the highest level of sanitary conditions in ponds, shrimp welfare, and high quality of feeds in terms of physical aspects and nutritional values. One of Skretting’s customers, Omarsa, is focused on a sustainable future.

“It’s important that all people around the world are conscious of the use of medications in feed and food production, where the discriminated use of the medications can generate the reproduction of super bacteria which are more difficult to eradicate, mainly in the shrimp aquaculture system, affecting the industrial sustainability, environment and consumer health. In Omarsa (Operadora y Procesadora de Mariscos) the main purpose is guaranteeing the sustainable food to millions of families, ensuring the whole production chain to sell shrimp medication free,” says Sandra Pardo, Financial Manager at Omarsa.

Handling fish is something most farmers need to do several times during the production, due to delousing, sorting, changing site, etc. In 2019 Skretting Norway launched a blood sampling kit for Atlantic salmon through our service team in ATLA.

Through our research at commercial farms, and in controlled field trials, we gained knowledge about blood markers in salmon. The blood-markers that we have identified provide insights on stress levels, antioxidant status or if there are any indicators of disease. Sometimes the samples can indicate what kind of disease the fish has.

Despite the additional information blood samples provide, we know that the blood samples alone are not enough. Together with other available tools at Skretting Aquaculture Innovation (AI), like genetic analysis and PCR combined with production data from farming sites, we can gain targeted information about the fish.

The collaboration with our customers has been crucial in starting up this service. Our health monitoring service has continued to expand to include more tools.

During 2021 gene expression analysis started to be often conducted in addition to blood analysis. Through genetic analysis of heart tissue, we can measure how specific genes involved in disease development are up- or down-regulated. Using this technique, we have been able to predict disease outbreak a month before it actually started. This is epoch-making and can help the farmer to take action that can minimise the consequences of a disease.

It is important to emphasize that this area is still far from being fully developed. We are sure this will further develop as we go along and collaborate together in-house and with customers, finding new markers and have a better understanding of fish health.