During the Covid 19 lockdown period, Mumbai based Vetbiotics Animal Healthcare Pvt Ltd launched a novel product, Biocal Forte, to improve the internal and external factors of fishes during the transportation. It will help reduce fish mortality.
Speaking about the new product, Dr. Karthik Ramachandran, Director – Vetbiotics, said, “During the Covid 19 period, the fish supply chain got disrupted. Due to lockdown, transportation of live fish products was impacted severely. Trucks and lorries carrying live fishes were stranded on the road for long hours. This caused high mortality of fishes. It prompted us to innovate Biocal Forte.”
Dr Karthik further said, “The product helps the fishes alive for long hours during transportation. Apart from that, farmers can apply it during culture and harvesting periods while catching fishes for sampling. The product maintains osmoregulations and prevents fishes from stress and mortality. It can be used in fingerling transportation to ensure 100% survival”.
Fish is harvested either from a capture environment or cultured farms for live transportation. When the fish leaves its natural environment, it must be in a self-sustainable environment that supplies necessary vital needs such as optimal temperature, oxygen, etc. Stress associated with live fishes is one of the greatest concerns affecting health status as well as its survival during transportation and storage.
While talking about the efficacy of the product, Dr Karthik claimed, “To examine the product efficacy, 10 fish transport containers were selected and two were kept as control. And, 500 ml / per container of Biocal Forte administered in all the eight containers and fishes were transported from West Bengal to Bihar (Approx. 500 kms). 100% survival was observed in all the eight experimental tanks in containers whereas less than 20% was observed in the control. The live fish transporters are very happy with the product efficacy. We launched the product in the domestic market during the Covid 19 lockdown period”.
About the cost of the product, Dr Karthik said, “It costs only Rs90 per truck. We have already sold 25000 litres during last three months.”
Dr Karishma Gupte, Senior Veterinary Surgeon and Physician and Director of Vetbiotics, who has designed the product said, “Biocal Forte, a product with essential additives, prevents fishes from evident symptoms like color variations, speedy respiration, behavioral changes like nervousness etc. It is 100% free of chemicals and antibiotics. We have already been successful in cases of fish transportation. We are working on shrimp products also”.
The company has already started selling the product in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. It has also launched it in Andhra Pradesh recently”.
(For more details about the products, Dr. Karthik Ramachandran, can be contacted at +91 90477 36561 / vbiotics@gmail.com )
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