Soybean Meal Use in Aquaculture Diets
A feeding trial with Gilthead sea bream, the main species of marine fish produced in the Mediterranean region (>120 000 MT per year) was performed to evaluate the effect of different inclusion levels of soybean products (defatted soybean meal, soybean protein concentrate and soybean oil) as fish meal/oil replacement. The inclusion levels of soybean products were 18% for the control diet (high quality feed with 65% of the protein originating from fishmeal), 31-34% for the treatments with 50% of the protein coming from fishmeal and up to 46% for the treatments where only 35% of the protein was provided by fishmeal. Dietary formulation was adapted to compensate for effects of soybean inclusion on nutritional and palatability characteristics of the feeds. Sea bream were fed the experimental feeds during 8 weeks and parameters included growth, survival, food conversion, protein efficiency ratio, carcass composition, filet composition, hepatosomatic and viscerosomatic indices, filet index, liver composition and gut histology. Results indicated that none of the evaluated parameters was significantly affected by the different replacement levels compared to the control. Neither growth nor food conversion were affected by the inclusion of high levels of soybean products. Histological study of the intestinal epithelium did not show any pathological sign due to the replacement. It can be concluded that for Gilthead sea bream, the replacement of fish meal with soybean meal under the conditions of the trial, is perfectly feasible without affecting the performance of the fish during the culture.

Robles, Rocio and co-workers. 2009. Determine optimal levels of fishmeal/fish oil replacement with soy products (soybean meal, soybean oil and soy protein concentrate) in practical feeds for Gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata). www.soyaqua.org/researchtech.html

Soybean Checkoff Program Reports
Soybean growers are investing in soybean research projects targeted at both improving production technologies and expanding soybean use. The writer of the Soybean Meal INFOcenter newsletter has a contract with the United Soybean Board to develop a report on research projects being funded by soybean growers. The report provides a listing of the various production research projects; soybean composition studies; utilization projects and technology transfer activities that are funded in part by the soybean checkoff. On October 1, 2008 soybean growers were funding 559 projects with a total investment of $36.9 million. Of the total funding, about $1.2 million dollars was allocated to soy protein studies and over $3.0 million was invested in studies to improve soybean composition. A large portion of the soy protein funding was for projects to improve the utilization of soybean meal by various aquaculture species.

The checkoff-funded research projects are also being listed on a special internet website (www.soybeancheckoffresearch.org). This database will be searchable by about two hundred descriptive terms (key words). Interested persons will be able to highlight the key word and access all of the checkoff projects in the subject area. It is hoped that this database will better serve the soybean grower, research administrator and those interested in learning more about the soybean research programs that are being funded by the Soybean Checkoff.