Exchange of professional and educational experiences in fish farming
On March 11th–15th, 2024, we completed a business trip to Latvia. We visited the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment (BIOR) and its Aquaculture Research and Education Centre near the town of Kegums. Here, we exchanged professional and educational experiences in the field of fish farming with colleagues from BIOR and with local fish farmers. The main discussed topics concerned health issues, genetics, breeding, reproduction and culture of common carp and other species suitable for pond farming. We also had the opportunity to visit the nearby breeding facility of the BIOR, which specializes on the reproduction and re-stocking of Atlantic salmon, sea trout, pikeperch and whitefish. The facility produces also stocking material of sturgeon, common carp and rainbow trout for fish farmers. We could see also the impressive fish-rearing fall just before completion. The hall was divided into several separate rooms with recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for culture of fish broodstocks and their offspring. The knowledge gained will be used in the innovation of the courses of the bachelor's study program Fishery at our faculty. The journey was realized with the support of the USB project from the fund of the National Recovery Plan (goal A3) financed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.
Written by: Martin Kocour
