Laboratorio Pathovet began the development of Smoltmeter® in 2015, becoming the first service of its kind in Chilean salmon farming. The service is a laboratory service to evaluate and quantify the osmoregulatory capacity of fish to support the decision of the optimal moment for their transfer from freshwater to the sea and it is the only indicator validated under the productive and environmental conditions of the different cultivation centers in Chile. 

“Our current data set exceeds 25,000 total analyzes distributed in 55.5% for the Atlantic salmon specific Smoltmeter® version, 41% for the coho and king salmon version and 3.5% for the rainbow trout version,” the company said.

Specifically, several generations and groups of fish produced by Salmones Aysén, Cermaq, Mowi, Australis Seafood, Salmones Austral and AquaGen have routinely incorporated this indicator - in addition to the recent implementation by Salmones Blumar and Ventisqueros - while another group of producing companies use Smoltmeter® more punctually. In addition, BioMar and Cargill customers also use the indicator as technical support associated with their functional diets to modulate the smoltification process. The increase in demand has determined the need to expand Pathovet's production capacities to maintain response times and monitor its clients' decision-making.

Smoltmeter® is the only service that is expressed as a quantitative indicator modeled by the contribution of key components in osmoregulatory physiology. It includes reference ranges to categorize the "physio-age" group of fish at an individual and group level and under different production conditions. The results can be interpreted quantitatively, clearly and simply, and always accompanied by a close technical discussion on a case-by-case basis with the client. From the analysis of the Smoltmeter® database, it is deduced that the fish monitored with the indicator shows six times less risk of presenting maladaptive fish during the first three months after entering the sea, in addition to better productive indicators in the same period of time specifically, 10% more SGR, 18% more SFR and 6% less FCR.

“We are a proud team that develops R&D processes that end in concrete and useful solutions for our clients. It is known that it is not easy to develop and commercialize completely new products and services, but, as we have done with almost all our services, we know the maturation period and the time of adoption of new technologies by our clients. We know that it is a process of conviction and, as such, that it must be completed with perseverance.”