July | August 2010

Feature title: Recent advances in the use of diformates in fish

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F: Diformates F: Diformates

achieved even better weight gain than the utilization as well as disease resistance in energy of 17.3 kJ g-1. The fish in both
fish in the positive control group. tilapia. Organic acid salt may be therefore the control and KDF treatment were
The authors speculated that dietary especially during the grow-out period given the appropriate feed with a daily
potassium diformate could stimulate a of high importance for tilapia culture ration equivalent to 5 percent of their
beneficial bacterial colonization of the (Lückstädt 2008). body weight. Feed was dispensed thrice
intestine. a day at 0800h, 1200h and 1600h. Water
More work carried out parameter as well as growth performance
Dietary organic acids Recently, research groups in the of fish were monitored regularly.
A subsequent study with this highly Philippines as well as in Germany have Diet supplemented with KDF yielded
effective substance was carried out in concentrated their work again on the improved growth data, based on daily
Malaysia (Ng et al. 2009). There, a 14-week use of diformates in tilapia. Researchers growth rate as well as specific growth
feeding trial was conducted to determine from the Southeast Asian Fisheries rate (P<0.01). Tilapia in the control group
the effect of dietary organic acids. Development Center – Aquaculture reached a mean body weight of 45.5±1.1
The experimental diet was g, while the fish fed with potas-
added with 0.2 percent KDF sium diformate reached an aver-
Table 2: Growth performance of tilapia after 42 days fed with
and fed to triplicate groups of age weight of 51.4±2.2 g. Likewise,
or without sodium diformate NDF
red hybrid tilapia. feed conversion ratio was

Recent advances in the use of Upon completion, tila-

pias were challenged with
Streptococcus agalactiae. Number of fish
Control

160
NDF (0.3%) P-level

160 -
improved significantly (P<0.05).

of
The results show that addition
0.3 percent KDF in the diets of

diformates in fish
Results clearly showed Nile tilapia can help to improve
by Christian Lückstädt, Addcon, Bonn, Germany Initial weight (g) 34.0 33.9 n.d.*
that total bacteria per gram its growth performance and thus,
Email: christian.lueckstaedt@addcon.net Final weight (g) 70.9 75.5 n.d.
of faeces were significantly can achieve a more economic and
reduced in diets containing Weight gain (g) 36.9 41.6 0.098 sustainable tilapia production.
A summary of latest findings in respect to the effectiveness of diformates in fish nutrition potassium diformate. The FCR 1.46 1.29 0.007 Furthermore, the additive opti-
number of adherent gut bac- mizes feed efficiency, which is
*n.d. – not determined
teria tended to be lower as in full agreement with previously

T
he use of acidifiers in
aquaculture is currently
gaining more interest
among researchers as
well as practitioners. A wide range of
different organic acids and salts have
been tested so far (Lückstädt, 2008).
The mode of action of acidifiers
in fish diets have been extensively
described in Int. Aquafeed – Vol. 12,
No. 2 in 2009. Diformates in particu-
lar have been used very regularly in
tropical, as well as cold-water aqua-
culture, because of their high load
of active ingredients on the one
hand and their stability and handling
properties in extruded feeds on the
other.
anguillarum at 105 CFU per day over a
period of 20 days.
Over the entire feeding period
from day one to 85, KDF signifi-
cantly increased feed intake (P<0.01)
and weight gain (P<0.01) as well as
improved the feed conversion ratio
significantly (P<0.01).
Furthermore, protein efficiency ratio
was also significantly improved due to the
addition of the formic acid double-salt
(P<0.05). The improvement was best with
0.2 percent and 0.5 percent addition
of the diformate. Survival rates of fish
after the challenge with V. anguillarum
on day 10 were also significantly higher
compared to
the negative Table 1: Effects of potassium diformate (KDF) supplementation in diets
tool to control bacterial infections in
tropical tilapia culture.
Similar results were achieved by Zhou
et al. (2008), who tested hybrid tilapia
(Oreochromis niloticus x Oreochromis
aureus) fingerlings (2.7 g initial weight)
in a dose response study with potassium
diformate (0%, 0.3%, 0.6%, 0.9% and 1.2%),
while also comparing the results with
an antibiotic growth promoter (8mg/kg
Flavomycin).
During the 56-day trial period, tilapia
fed all the potassium diformate enriched
diets grew faster than the negative con-
trol (an increase of up to 11.6%), while
fish fed 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent KDF
well.
Furthermore, apparent digestibility of
phosphorous was improved too – by
nearly 11 percent in acidified diets.
Finally, cumulative mortality of fish
fed no organic acids (58.3%) was higher
compared with fish fed the potassium
diformate supplemented diet (16.6%) at
16 days post challenge.
The Malaysian data showed that the
inclusion of this acidifier can exert strong
antimicrobial effects and have the poten-
tial to exert beneficial effects on nutrient
Department in Binangonan, Philippines
(Cuvin-Aralar et al. 2010) looked at the
effect of potassium diformate (KDF).
Twenty-five male Nile tilapias with a
mean weight of 7.84±0.90 g were stocked
in eight 240-litre polyethylene tanks in a
static-renewal system. Fish were reared
for 74 days. Proximate composition of
the commercial feed was 31.4 percent
crude protein, 6.9 percent crude fat, 8.6
percent crude fibre, 52.3 percent NFE
and 0.8 percent ash as well as a gross
reported improved digestibility
parameters after the inclusion of KDF in
fish feeds.
Double salt feed additive
Researchers from the Göttingen
University in Germany (Liebert et al.
2010) focused on the most recently
developed double salt feed additive –
sodium diformate, which is also produced
at Addcon’s production site in Norway.
Preliminary data from a semi-closed
re-circulating system showed promising

AQUAFORM®
control and on performance of tilapia challenged with V. anguillarum (modified from
Ramli et al. (2005) tested potassium the effect Ramli et al. 2005)
diformate (potassium salt of formic acid) was dose Potassium diformate inclusion in diet (%)
as a growth promoter in tilapia grow-out dependent
0 0.2 0.3 0.5
The sustainable growth promotor
in Indonesia (see Table 1). (P<0.01).
In this study, fish were fed over a T h e
period of 85 days, six times a day, diets a u t h o r s Initial weight (g) 16.7 16.7 16.7 16.7
www.addcon.net

containing different concentrations of concluded Final weight (g) 218a 258c 246b 252bc
potassium diformate (0%, 0.2%, 0.3% and that the FCR 1.34a 1.23b 1.25b 1.22b • Better Weight Gain
0.5%). The diets contained 32 percent application Mortality (%),
33.0a 20.8b 18.4b 11.0c
• Reduced Mortality
crude protein, 25 percent carbohydrates, of potassium
six percent lipids and 10 percent fibre. diformate at
day 10-85
• Improved FCR For further information please contact:
abc within rows, means without common superscripts are significantly ADDCON GROUP GmbH • Kaiserstr. 1a • 53113 Bonn • Germany
The fish were challenged orally starting 0.2 percent different (p<0.05) Phone: +49 228 91910-0 • eMail: info@addcon.net
day 10 of the culture period with Vibrio is an efficient

26 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | July-august 2010 July-august 2010 | InternatIonal AquAFeed | 27

 F: Diformates
results on the use of sodium diformate
(NDF) at 0.3 percent inclusion rate in
perature affects physical quality of barley
protein concentrate-based fish feed”
Aqua News
ment with the above mentioned tilapia
trials, since tilapia fed with increasing
Traceability, Uniformity, Costs,
Energy, Survival, Productivity, An
Health, Water Quality, Profitabilit

British Columbia's Salmon Farmers support Heart and Stroke Foundation

tilapia fingerling rearing (see Table 2).
This new additive caught the inter-
highlighted that the physical quality (hard-
ness, water stability index) of BPC-based
dosages of KDF (from 0.25% to 1.00%)
showed increased weight gains.
est of researchers from the APC in As, fish diets could be improved by optimizing Addcon recently announced the suc-
Environmental Concerns, Traceab
B
ritish Columbia Salmon Salmon Farmer s Association acid content extrudercan protectcessful salmon
our test farmer s range,
continue
basedtoon
F a r m e r s A s s o c i a t i o n (BCSFA). health."
perature and
tem-
the diformate
of its acidifier
provide a renewable
technology, source
in yet of
another
World AquAculture 2011
Table 3: Growth
members performance
in Canada have of milkfish
There'sfedawith or without
personal potassium
connection As the world'sNDF.
by adding populationfish
con- this(see
species important
Table 3).supplement that Aquaculture for a Changing World
come diformate
togetherKDF to highlight the too between the BCSFA and the tinues toThe increase its consump-
second doesn't furscaled
A commercial ther challenge
trial in wildmilk-

There’s an Alltech solution

impor tance of salmon in your Control work of the KDF (0.3%)
Hear t and StrokeP-level
tion of salmon,
study, the province's
entitled salmon
fish marine cagestocks.
culture was recently
diet. A donation of US$5000 has Foundation. Three years ago, “Effect of sodi- completed. The donation is par ticularly

...naturally
been made to the Hear t and Walling suffered a stroke and um diformate timely showed
First results as the Heartclearand Stroke
tendencies
Initial body weight [g] 12 24 n.d.*
Stroke Foundation, in honour has since fully recovered. The and extruder (P<0.1) of Foundation
KDF on moves(13%
growth into surplus
their
Final body weight [g] 307 311 n.d.
of all working to ensure salmon advancement of research and temperature educational
in weight gain) and feedingStroke Month, held
efficiency (FCR
Culturey period [d] 193 education by 175
the Heart n.d. in June
remain a dietar and environ- public on nutrient improved by moreeach thanyear.
10%) at inclusion
mental staple. ADG [g] 1.60Stroke Foundation
and 1.81 has 0.08 digestibility in rates of 0.3 percent.
"We are providing aFCR healthy helped
2.52 many people 2.26 better 0.06 rainbow trout more inFormation:
food source in aSurvival way that's
[%] sus-
understand
91.4
stroke and hear t 0.37
90.6 fed barley Conculsion Mary Ellen Walling
tainable for the future. health issues. Executive Director
protein con- In general the authors concluded
*n.d. – not determined Mary centrate-based
Ellen Walling, Executive British Columbia Salmon Farmers
“This is key to the long-term "It's a message that is that data achieved
Association under high hygienic
health of our communities - as is ver y impor tant to me," said Director of BCSFA in Canada,
diets” lead to conditions at#302 laboratory
- 871 Islandscale will lead
Highway
makes a donation of US$5000
education
Norway.and continued
Morken et al.research Walling.
(2010) showed two significant improvements in apparent to even Campbell
more River, BC V9Weffects
pronounced 2C2 of
to the Heart and Stroke The economic impacts of ammonia are increased
like that supported
studies during thebyISFNF in China "It's
the Heart key thatdigestibility
in June people know of crudeFoundation,
protein and crude diformates Canada
in the field. It is there-
represented
how feed,
to best manage Tel: +1 250 2861636 x223 production cost and decreased output. Alltech can help.
and2010Stroke
whichFoundation,"
included NDF saidin fish fat, as heart
well and by Bea
as essential Duquette,
amino acids ain30-year
fore highly Fax: recommended
+1 250 2861574
to include
Mar y Ellen for
especially trout. Executive stroke risks -Rainbow
Walling, eating salmon,
trout. volunteer in the Campbell organic acidEmail:
salts, like diformates, in the
mwalling@salmonfarmers.org
River area De-Odorase contains an extract of the yucca plant
Director of the
Results from British first study,with
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Website: www.salmonfarmers.org tropical
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