The city of Tarragona, Spain, hosted the 32nd edition of the International Biovet Symposium between May 25 and 28. The event brought together more than 50 veterinary specialists, zootechnicians, animal producers and researchers from 19 countries to participate in conferences divided into 4 thematic sessions.

Among the main topics of the meeting, the presentation of results obtained in trials carried out with Biovet products rich in pronutrients and other natural additives took an important role. The experiments were carried out in different countries with tilapias, trouts, broiler chickens, turkeys and goats.

Increasing importance of aquaculture

Although aquaculture has had a presence in some sessions of past editions, the recent Biovet’s International Symposium has opted for giving extra importance to this sector. Aquaculture was the central axis of a complete session and part of a session focused on pathologies. Factors such as overexploitation of marine resources, oceans’ pollution and the need to supply markets with affordable protein sources have aroused growing commercial interest in aquaculture production. In this sense, there has been an exponential increase in the breeding and production of species such as tilapia – in warm waters -, salmon – cold waters – and some crustaceans such as shrimp.

It is expected that this phenomenon will keep growing and, thus, the need to develop products for nutrition and health improvement of these species, as well as for the availability of tools for preventing and treating pathologies in these species.

Prevalent pathologies and with great impact on animal production

The Symposium also addressed issues related to new applications and effectiveness of pronutrients. On this matter, trial results were presented on the use of Alquernat Nebsui and Alquernat Zycox in the production of broilers free from antibiotic growth promoters and anticoccidials; the effect of Natural Alquermold on Clostridium perfringens; or the use of Alquermold Natural and Alquernat Zycox in the prevention and treatment of necrotic enteritis and coccidiosis.

At the same time, other pathologies with special incidence in poultry and salmon production were also reviewed, as well as the most important zoonoses in production birds, contextualized in a hypothetical transmission channel through contact with migratory birds.