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Courtesy of NAA:

The Soy Aquaculture Alliance (SAA) has posted a 2023 first quarter report describing SAA Research Projects between January 1 and March 30, 2023.

Currently, SAA supports 13 projects (eight active and five approved projects) designed to improve soy utilization in seven aquaculture species, including Florida Pompano, Rainbow Trout (2), California Yellowtail, Atlantic Salmon (2), Largemouth Bass (2), Marine Shrimp and Channel Catfish (2). Two additional projects address the social license of aquaculture and the need for training of aquaculture nutritionists.

These projects represent a total SAA checkoff investment of $826,403 with an additional $556,628 in checkoff funding from the United Soybean Board (USB) toward aquaculture market development. Note that this investment spans four fiscal years and does not include completed projects.

Each project spans 12 months, with the exception of one with a no-cost extension. The full report details the overall status of active research projects, but in summary, here are the noteworthy updates from this reporting period:

• Project 44215 University of Idaho SBM Tolerant Rainbow Trout – 2023 began January 1, 2023.
• SAA approved five new projects that will begin in FY2023 Q3 (April-June) totaling a $380,329 checkoff investment.
• Project 44204 Auburn University – Florida Pompano – 2021 has requested a second 6-month no-cost extension due to disease pressure during the study. The trial will be re-run for the third time, concluding on September 1, 2023.
• The four projects that are jointly funded with USB submitted their first report.

Looking forward to the next quarter, two projects will conclude and submit final reports by the beginning of Q4. Those projects are:

• Selectively bred, high protein soybean meals for commercial production of California yellowtail.
• Enhancing the soybean utilization in Atlantic salmon diet via using insect meal as a complementary ingredient.

Please reach out if you are interested in being the first to review final reports for these projects.

Past reports and project overviews of all checkoff research are available in the National Soybean Checkoff Research Database. Links to individual projects are included in the project overviews in this report.

If you have questions or would like additional information, please contact Easton Kuboushek, Executive Director, Soy Aquaculture Alliance, at easton@soyaquaculture.org.