(07) The nutrition laboratory at FARS comprises one small room with a minimum of desk or counter space and a minimum of cupboard or storage area/space. The laboratory had been idle and imcompleted for several years. Equipment stored was coroded and often damaged by rodents or vermin. All laboratory space and equipment useful for nutrition research and feed quality control was cleaned and tested for operation. Much of the equipment could be repaired, but several items viz. spectrophotometer, electronic analytical balance and other electronic equipment need to be serviced by factory representatives and put back into acceptable condition. Electric meat grinder and extruder were not available; therefore hand-operated equipment was purchased for initial use in small scale experiments involving diet preparations for small lots of fish. The electric water still was repaired, installed and tested for operation. Distilled water is now available for the Station. Demonstrations of several type diet preparations were made for Station personnel.
(08) The capability of the nutrition laboratory is limited but it can be used for proximate analysis of feeds and feedstuffs for gross nutrient profiles, which will be useful in diet formulations. It can also be used for analysis of digestible components in finished feeds and for lipid rancidity assays. Addition of an adiobatic calorimeter will be necessary before gross and metabolic energy determinations can be made. The laboratory is very small for nutrition work, and other laboratory space will be needed as the programme expands.
(09) Additional equipment needs of the nutrition laboratory were listed for items to complete the capability of the laboratory for gross nutrient profile assays, as well as for other simple analyses needed in the initial phases of the nutrition research programme at FARS. This list of equipment with 1985 prices (FOB Seattle, USA) can be found in Annex B. The total amounts to a little over US$ 30,000. A VWR catalogue, giving specifications for each item was donated to the library of FARS; VWR has been reported to have an agent in Bangladesh.
