Bayer Animal Health adds warmwater aquaculture offerings

Three agreements enhance integrated pond water treatment solutions for shrimp.

June 4, 2020

4 Min Read
Bayer shrimp.jpg
Bayer Animal Health offers more pond water environment management technologies to help shrimp farmers enhance efficiency and sustainability.Bayer AG

Bayer Animal Health announced that it is boosting its solutions offerings for shrimp and other warmwater aquaculture species through supply and distribution agreements with water treatment technology suppliers Cytozyme Laboratories Inc. and Chengdu Kehongda Technology Co. Ltd. as well as farm management technology provider XpertSea Solutions Inc.

With these agreements, Bayer Animal Health said it extends greater access to pond water environment management technologies to farmers in key shrimp-producing countries, further enhancing operational efficiency and sustainability.

The aquaculture industry has evolved considerably over the last decade, particularly as stocks from fisheries stagnate or dwindle. To meet growing global seafood demand, the shrimp industry is increasingly turning to warmwater pond aquaculture, Bayer Animal Health said. This not only contributes to increased production volumes but also aids the conservation of the oceans’ resources. Today, warmwater pond aquaculture contributes 55% of shrimp produced globally, mostly by small and medium pond farming enterprises, the company said in its announcement.

Optimizing pond environments

Water treatment solutions play an important role in aquaculture, enabling producers to manage the complex pond ecosystem and provide an optimal environment for shrimp to thrive. As part of the agreement with Cytozyme, Bayer Animal Health will commercialize Proquatic PondRestore, a product that enhances metabolization activities in the pond soil and pond water environment, in several key aquaculture-producing countries. The product is already part of Bayer Animal Health’s water treatment portfolio in China.

The agreement with Kehonda will enable the rollout of Fetant Complex Iodine Solution technology as part of Bayer Animal Health’s portfolio in China and Vietnam. This partnership follows the inclusion of Dyvon PondAcid to Bayer Animal Health’s water treatment solution program in China. The product is a pond water conditioner that supports the quality of phytoplankton populations and maintains levels of dissolved oxygen in the pond water.

Advancing digital in aquaculture

Together with XpertSea, Bayer Animal Health will advance digital farming in shrimp aquaculture. The agreement offers smart devices and artificial intelligence powered software for a comprehensive approach to data-driven farm management as part of its integrated services in China, Ecuador, India and Vietnam.

The devices leverage optics to measure vital pond statistics over time and identify changes in the health of a population. Insights are aggregated into XpertSea’s online Growth Platform, which aids producers in making data-driven management and treatment decisions, the announcement said.

“We are proud to be able to play a leading role in offering shrimp producers an application program of non-pharmaceutical pond-water treatment products that make up a comprehensive solution. Together with our partners, we are committed to continue bringing technology to shrimp producers and supporting the sustainable development of the industry,” said Jan Koesling, global aquaculture manager at Bayer Animal Health.

Over the last decades, Bayer Animal Health has fine-tuned its offering of water treatment solutions to address the needs of warmwater pond aquaculture customers in different segments. The agreements with Cytozyme, Kehonda and XpertSea follow successful pilot projects in China and Vietnam in 2019 and build upon the leading umbrella brands of ProteAQ, Proquatic and Fetant.

Warmwater pond aquaculture has some distinct advantages, the company explained: It is not directly connected with the ocean, and production utilizes land that is often not suitable to efficiently sustain crops, which, in turn, brings about economic benefits to the community.

Rapid advancements in technology have enabled pond aquaculture to be more sustainable than ever before, the company noted. In modern shrimp aquaculture, producers cultivate improved shrimp seedlings and place emphasis on biosecurity as a healthy pond environment is vital for growing healthy shrimp.

Shrimp producers also increasingly invest in indoor culture systems that enable better control of culture conditions, innovative water treatment products and recirculate water to limit water exchange with the open sea environment. This reduces disease risk and puts the industry on the path towards true sustainability.

For more than 40-years, Salt Lake City, Utah-based Cytozyme has been committed to feeding the world responsibly by delivering high performance, proven soil-to-shelf crop solutions using innovative technology and rigorous quality controls.

Kehonda focuses on the development and efficient manufacturing of disinfectants and surfactants. The company’s core business are disinfectant products and environmental cleaning products, which are widely used in swine, poultry, dairy, aquaculture, pet care and other fields.

XpertSea is a Canadian technology company that is transforming how the global aquaculture industry farms seafood to help feed the world. Combining smart aquaculture equipment with a farm management platform, its collaborative solution uncovers actionable insights driven by artificial intelligence.

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