New fish health and nutrition trial units

NIWA has constructed and commissioned two new research units to provide future support and R&D capability to the New Zealand aquaculture sector as it diversifies and develops. They are: a commercial scale nutrition trials unit at Bream Bay Aquaculture Park near Whangarei, and a disease investigation and challenge unit at our Greta Point campus in Wellington.

The nutrition trials unit is set up to investigate such things as growth potential, feed conversion efficiency, and nutrition trials to test new ingredients for aquafeeds.

The disease unit is designed to safely contain and study fish diseases.  The team behind it use a suite of microbiological and molecular (including DNA) tools to isolate and identify the causes of farmed fish diseases.

Each unit is fully committed for the next two years, directly engaged with companies servicing our existing aquaculture sector and addressing aspects of our research under our Foundation for Research, Science and Technology High Value Aquaculture Species programme.

Contacts

Dr Michael Bruce (Nutrition trials service)

Dr Vicky Webb (Fish health service)

Further information

Nutrition trials service

Fish health services