Conclusions and perspectives of BFT

Biosecurity is a priority in aquaculture industry. For example, in shrimp farming, considerable impact of disease outbreaks during the past two decades greatly affected the operational management of shrimp farms worldwide [10]. Infected PLs and incoming water seem to be the main pathway for pathogen introduction. This scenario forced farmers to look for more biosecure culture practices to minimize the risk associated with exposure to pathogens [2]. Biofloc technology brings an obvious advantage of minimizing consumption and release of water, recycling in situ nutrients and organic matter. Furthermore, pathogens introduction is reduced, improving the farm biosecurity.

Biofloc technology will enable aquaculture grow towards an environmental friendly approach. Consumption of microorganisms in BFT reduces FCR and consequently costs in feed. Also, microbial community is able to rapidly utilize dissolved nitrogen leached from shrimp faeces and uneaten food and convert it into microbial protein. These qualities make minimal-exchange BFT system an alternative to extensive aquaculture. Microorganisms in biofloc might partially replace protein content in diets or decrease its dependence of fishmeal.

Related to biofloc meal and its perspectives, the study [17] detected initial estimates of cost for producing a metric ton of biofloc meal is approximately $400 to $1000. The same authors cited that global soymeal market varied approximately from $375 to $550/metric ton from January 2008 through May 2009. During the same time period, fishmeal varied approximately from $1000 to $1225, suggesting feasibility on replacement of either soybean and/or fish meal by biofloc meal. Moreover, generated from a process that cleans aquaculture effluents [17, 39] biofloc meal production avoids discharge of waste water and excessive damage to natural habitats [4]. This ingredient seems to be free of deleterious levels of mycotoxins, antinutritional factors and other constituents that limit its use in aquafeeds [79]. Large-scale production of biofloc meal for use in aquaculture could result in environmental benefits to marine and coastal ecosystems, as the need for wild fish as an aquafeed ingredient is reduced [79, 92].

Sensorial quality of BFT products is also an important issue. BFT may bring higher profit if fresh non-frozen shrimp/fish is sold to near-by market, mainly at inland locations. These advantages certainly should be more explored and niche markets achieved, contributing to social sustainability.

Author details

Mauricio Emerenciano

Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), Unidad Multidisciplinaria de Docencia e Investigation (UMDI), UNAM, Sisal, Yucatan, Mexico Santa Catarina State University, Centro de Educagao Superior da Regiao Sul (CERES), Laguna, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Gabriela Gaxiola

UMDI, Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Sisal, Yucatan, Mexico Gerard Cuzon

Ifremer (Institut Frangais de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer) Taravao, Tahiti, French Polynesia

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank CONCYTEY (Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnologia del Estado de Yucatan), Coordenagao de Aperfeigoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior-CAPES,

Brazilian Ministry of Education (PhD grant number 4814061 provided to the primary author) and Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologfa-CONACyT, Mexico (grant 60824) for research support. The authors also would like to thank Wilson Wasielesky, Yoram Avnimelech and Manuel Valenzuela for photos courtesy and Miguel Arevalo, Maite Mascara, Elsa Norena, Santiago Capella, Adriana Paredes, Gabriela Palomino, Korynthia Aguiar, Moises Cab, Nancy Aranda Cirerol, Concepcion Burgos, Manuel Valenzuela and all staff of Programa Camaron-UMDI for their contribution towards researches performed at UMDI-UNAM cited in this chapter.