- Title
- Waste to feed: agricultural waste – grown brine shrimp (Artemia) as live food for aquaculture and potential source of protein for feeds
- Creator
- Ogburn, Nepheronia Jumalon
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Aquaculture is the fastest growing food industry sector in the world that is constrained by a reliance on live food, like the brine shrimp (Artemia), for hatchery, and by dependence on fishmeal and fish oil from a declining wild fish catch for grow out. The Australian distillery, winery, brewery, poultry and livestock industries produce significant amounts of wastes or by-products, incurring high disposal costs and may cause environmental problems if not reused, contained or treated due to their high COD or BOD. This study characterised different agricultural wastes and tested their effectiveness as a food source for Artemia to promote aquaculture production as a novel way of remediating wastes for a circular economy. The wastes screened were Bio Dunder® and dunder from bioethanol and rum distilleries, respectively, that use molasses as raw product; vinasse from sugar syrup, demerara sugar and raw sugar rum distilleries; low-grade molasses from a sugar mill; spent yeast from a brewery; effluents from a grape winery, a combined grape winery-olive production facility, and a dairy, and poultry manure. Except for Bio Dunder® and dunder, wastes were diluted or enhanced with other wastes. Preliminary trials and fourteen feeding experiments were conducted over four years to screen wastes and their effectiveness in growing Artemia intensively in indoor culture systems. The physico-chemical parameters monitored in feed or culture included alcohol, alkalinity, ammonia, BOD, DO, DM, HM, OM, phosphate, salinity, temperature, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and turbidity. The biological parameters monitored were microbial populations through microscopic counts of pico (up to 2 µm), nanno (2-10 µm) and micro (10-60 µm) plankton cells present. At the end of each culture, the yield and quality of Artemia were evaluated. Aerobic digestion effectively improved waste quality and promoted microbial food to grow Artemia to adults in two weeks, even in less-than-ideal aquarium culture conditions without filtration and water change. Wastes from the alcohol industry varied but were much lower in pH than livestock waste which is near neutral. Vinasse and olive-grape winery effluent, both low DM, were highly acidic at pH >4 and needed liming. These acidic and other non-molasses distillery wastes also required microbial enhancement to grow Artemia. Bio Dunder® and dunder have significantly higher dry and organic matter concentrations than other wastes, with bigger microorganisms, like yeasts. OM proved to be a limiting factor in Artemia production. Hence, Bio Dunder® and dunder wastes also showed the best production and quality among the wastes. OM is positively correlated to DM, salinity and micro count, and negatively to pH. All production criteria (survival, harvest, SGR and FCR) are highly correlated to each other and harvest is considered a good index for Artemia output from wastes. Enrichment of low OM waste with poultry manure worked well initially. However, manure, like low-OM wastes, deteriorated faster with age compared to molasses distillery wastes which still produced better Artemia than enhanced waste after 2-3 years. Demerara sugar and syrup vinasse gave highest production when enhanced with brewery spent yeast. Metagenomic analysis showed that vinasse microbial profile improved with spent yeast enhancement. The fatty acid profile of waste grown Artemia varies greatly, with EFA correlated to Artemia survival, growth and organic matter. This supports the findings that OM is converted to nutritious Single Cell Proteins as food for Artemia after aerobic digestion. Order Lactobacillales and Saccharomycetales dominated the bacterial and fungal community, respectively, in alcohol industry wastes. These Orders include species known to be beneficial for human nutrition, thus Artemia ingesting these microorganisms are suitable as food not only for other organisms but possibly for humans. Heavy metals concentration in waste and Artemia show very safe levels based on FAO standard, while metabolomic analysis showed a predominance of beneficial metabolites, like essential amino acids, Vit C and other compounds associated with food production or metabolic functions of organisms. The potential of a larger-scale biomass output through remediation of high-volume alcohol industry waste in Australia may be valuable in addressing the dwindling protein resource from natural sources.
- Subject
- Artemia; agricultural waste; waste remediation; circular economy; protein production
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1511549
- Identifier
- uon:56507
- Rights
- This thesis is currently under embargo and will be available from 19.01.2025, Copyright 2024 Nepheronia Jumalon Ogburn
- Language
- eng
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