Cargill and EWOS inaugurate landmark fish health center in Chile

COLACO, Chile, Oct. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cargill and its EWOS brand marked a significant milestone in addressing fish health and disease prevention through the inauguration of one of the world's largest and most significant research centers of its kind. 

Located in the Pacific coastal-town of Colaco, Chile, the Cargill Innovation Center is geared specifically to improve health and wellbeing for salmon. The innovation center will serve as a research hub of internationally-renowned experts from EWOS and Cargill, who will focus on developing functional fish diets and studying diseases that affect farmed salmon in Chile and other countries focused on aquaculture.

Through the Cargill investment and the support of Corfo, a Chilean developmental agency, the innovation center will have more than 30 scientists and aquaculture experts.  As part of their research, they will create tools and additional controls to fight the two major health challenges in the salmon industry. The first one is SRS, caused by a bacterium responsible for 79 percent of the mortality of salmon and the main reason for antibiotics use in Chile. The second one is Caligidosis, caused by Caligus or "sea lice," a parasite that attaches to salmon skin, affecting its health. These diseases have contributed to significant fish industry sector losses.

With this investment, the Cargill Innovation Center in Chile will be able to conduct 4-5 times more studies than before, increasing the global capacity for fish health research by 30 percent.

"Having our own fish health center will accelerate our product development programs, allowing us to quickly develop new customer solutions," said Einar Wathne, president, Cargill Aqua Nutrition. "We will be able to dig much deeper into the primary diseases and combat the risks they create for salmon producers, and also apply our learnings across multiple species of fish."

"Proper fish nutrition is an excellent tool to help control disease," said Simon Wadsworth, global fish health manager for Cargill Aqua Nutrition "A fish consumes some 30,000 pellets in its lifetime and that means there are the same number of opportunities to manage the specimens – with no manipulation – to help the sustainability of the industry."

About Cargill Animal Nutrition
Cargill's animal nutrition business has more than 20,000 employees at more than 275 facilities in 40 countries. Fueled by our innovation and research, we offer a range of products and services to feed manufacturers, animal producers, and feed retailers around the world, helping put food on the plates of nearly one billion people around the world every day. Cargill's animal nutrition business offers a range of compound feed, premixes, feed additives, supply chain and risk management solutions, software tools and animal nutrition expertise that is unmatched in the industry. For more information about Cargill Animal Nutrition, visit: http://www.cargill.com/feed.

EWOS was acquired by Cargill in 2015 and is now integrated into Cargill Animal Nutrition as a business called Cargill Aqua Nutrition representing the EWOS brand.  The Cargill Innovation Center in Chile is one of three aqua innovation centers in Cargill.

About Cargill
With over than 150 years of experience, Cargill provides nutrition, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services in the entire world, and promotes the application of new knowledge in partnership with farmers, customers, governments and communities. In total, it has 150,000 employees in 70 different countries who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities in which they live and work.

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SOURCE Cargill

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