Dutch fund invests in phage and breeding technology targeted at fish farming

Mike Velings, co-founder of that Dutch investment fund, told FeedNavigator about the benefits the technology can bring to the fish farming sector and feed producers.

One of the firms the fund has financed is Proteon, a Polish company comprising about 25 scientists that has developed bacteriophages to target infections in fish and in poultry in a way that doesn’t create resistance; the phages work as alternatives to antibiotics.

“We had been looking for something like this for years,” he said. 

Some 70% of antibiotics sold annually go into animal production but unlike broad-spectrum antibiotics that kill all bacteria inside the animal’s gut, bacteriophages “only target specific bacteria and they are fully natural so animals don’t have to be into quarantine [after treatment],” said Velings.

Proteon’s product for aquaculture, Bafador, is designed to fight two common pathogens responsible for mortality in farmed fish - Pseudomonas and Aeromonas.  

“Proteon’s phage technology doesn’t affect the [animal’s] immune system. All the presumptions and development around products such as probiotics are also based on that idea - ensuring good gut health so you have better growth and less disease.”

Because they are highly specific, scientists also believe phages have limited effects on environmental bacterial ecology.

From R&D to commercial stage

In terms of why Aqua-Spark chose to invest in Proteon, in particular, Velings said: 

“There are that not many companies active in this space. We only identified a handful globally - spanning Korea, China, Western Europe and the US. There are not than many, frankly, and even fewer with actual products in the market.

“We started looking at different companies and really liked the team that Proteon has. If you examine the actual challenges around phages - how to produce them at scale and prepare them for use in one million chickens or in one million fish, and then find a way to administer them – we believe that Proteon can [get around such challenges].

“Now, after 10 years of development, they are finally at a moment where they are commercializing all of their work. This is a great time for us to get in and help them change from a purely science based research company into a commercial operation.”

Antibiotic resistance

Velings said he hopes more companies will move into the phage space and that they will be successful. “There are a lot of predictions that, by 2050, if we don’t come up with good alternatives to current antibiotic strategies, millions of people will die from common diseases that we won’t have any weapons against any more.”

Velings said Proteon will use the funds to commercialize its products globally and develop production capacity. “It is in the process of getting its products registered in the EU and it has already started selling into the Asian market.”

Feed is a good platform to administer phages prophylactically for certain diseases and, in doing so, increases the value of the feed, he said. Integration of phages into feed would provide added value for feed mills, he added. "Phages survive processes such as pelleting and drying to still be effective.”

Breeding space

Aqua-Spark is also supporting US headquartered, Cryoocyte, a firm behind fish breeding technology.

Velings said the fund had been in discussion with the provider for a number of years, before making the investment. He said it is a small, internationally focused company with great potential.

“They have two products – one that is still at the fairly early stage and another one that is on the market right now – that one is based on extending the lifespan of fish eggs for cold-water species. So if you look at salmon eggs for example, you currently have about 24 hours to start working on those eggs, and start breeding, etc., which is not a lot of time to carry out good selection. Selective breeding programs take a massive amount of time and multiple generations to get the best brood stock you can get for growth, for feed efficiency and for disease resistance. 

“The technology at Cryoocyte and the services platform that it has built around extends that lifespan period to work on eggs to around two weeks. All of a sudden, based on genetic markets, you can afford not to just genotype the males - a current industry practice - but you can also genotype the females, screen their eggs for diseases, etc. You can decide which females and males should be mated."

"We think it [this technology] is going to bring major changes to the farming of salmon and help breeding companies to get a better result.”

Cryoocyte is also developing cryopreservation technology for the fish eggs of tropical species to enable backup of genetic stock or by also enhancing output through better selective breeding programs.

“With cryopreservation, you can freeze [the eggs] and bring them back to life, which means you safeguard your brood stock. In the case of disease, you can put your eggs in the freezer and keep them safe. You can also transport the material across borders. You have an almost infinite time to work on eggs and do all sorts of genetic testing for traits that you want to have in terms of feed efficiency, disease [resistance] or growth.”

As the technology can speed up selective breeding processes, it will also help ensure biodiversity in terms of the fish species used in farming operations globally, a factor that will assist in future food security, added Velings.