Aquaculture talks with Kurt Servin

In 2019 his Ph.D. was awarded by Plymouth University in the UK under the guidance of Prof. Simon Davies, Dr. Albert G. Tacon, and Dr. Merrifield where he tested natural prebiotics and probiotics to enhance the immune competence of shrimp to improve their disease resistance and stress tolerance.

His scientific work is focused on the functionality of ingredients and feed additives, looking at gut modulation of aquatic species to enhance their welfare and quality for the end-consumer.

As such, his work involves the application of advanced molecular techniques to quantify intestinal microbiology or ‘microbiome’ and to link this with dietary formulations containing functional feed additives in nutrition. This

work has serious implications regarding mitigating our previous dependence on antibiotics in our quest to seek effective alternatives that do not result in antimicrobial resistance in the food chain to both animals and humans.

Dr. Kurt is helping to promote domestic strategies in his native Mexico and the Americas to address domestic challenges, with a keen interest in job and wealth creation based on sound ethical principles around local aquaculture activities.

Over the years he has actively attended prestigious aquaculture meetings and been an invited speaker on a number of occasions in LATAM regions and abroad. More recently, 2019-2020, he has contributed to review articles and peer-reviewed publications in leading scientific journals ‘Sustainability’ notably as a co-author (2019) and lead author in ‘Aquaculture Nutrition‘ (2020) with metagenomics scientific work on shrimps.

Dr. Kurt is committed to safe, efficient, and sustainable seafood production to benefit the human population globally