Carola Dehler recently spent a week in Idaho USA presenting her work at the International Symposium on the Feeding and Nutrition of Fish, which was sponsored by the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre.
The 17th International Symposium on the Feeding and Fish Nutrition (ISFNF) took place in the Sun Valley Resort (Idaho) between the 5th and 10th of June under the conference chair of Ron Hardy (University of Idaho). The University of Idaho is the home of the well-established Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI) which focusses on rainbow trout research, but also has research projects concerning other native and non-native fish. Most of the research is undertaken at the University’s Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station 90 miles from Boise and construction of new facilities on campus is currently undertaken to expand to incorporate marine fish research.
Excellent key notes were given by Sachi Kaushik (President of the European Aquaculture Society), John Rawls (Duke University), Jose Villalon (Nutreco) and Tim O’Keefe (President Aqua-Food Technologies, Inc.) giving different perspectives on the topic of aquaculture and nutrition and present and future challenges. Dr Santosh Lall was presented with the ISFNF Career Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution to the research field and organisation of the ISFNF symposia. Well known for being one of the pioneers of nutrition research in aquaculture and his dedication to science and education, he has been previously awarded the Governor General’s Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013) and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Aquaculture Association of Canada.
Around 80 talks and 128 posters were presented, which were grouped into the focus sessions;
- Feed Resources
- Nutritional Modelling Nutrition
- Health Nutrition
- Product Quality
- Nutritional Requirements
- Nutrigenomics
- Nutritional Physiology
- Practical Applications of Nutritional Research.
Compared to previous conferences, there was a notable increase in the amount of presentations about research into the interaction of nutrition and intestinal microbiota, showing that this is an emerging and increasingly important field of aquaculture nutrition research of which my research is a part.
One of the conference highlights was the Cowboy Dinner, a big traditional American cook-out under the blazing Idaho sun, which invited everyone to network and socialise. On the last evening, during the Gala Dinner, Dr Bente Torstensen (NIFES) was thanked for her outstanding contribution to the international ISFNF committee, and her successor Rune Waagbo was welcomed. Afterwards, the location for the next symposium in 2018 was revealed as Gran Canaria, which was positively received by the audience.