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Matthew Wong


Position/Title: M.Sc. (Thesis) Student
email: mwong17@uoguelph.ca
Phone:
Office: ANNU 047


After completing my B.Sc. in Animal Science at the University of Guelph in 2017, I decided to continue my education by doing an M.Sc. with Dr. Dominique Bureau, an expert in aquaculture and animal nutrition. My interest in aquaculture started in my second year, when I had the opportunity to be involved with the development of the International Aquaculture Feed Formulation Database. In my fourth year, I became increasingly interested in the aquaculture industry as I enrolled in an undergraduate research course investigating alternative natural sources of pigments for use in salmonid production (e.g. rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon). Currently, my M.Sc project focuses on shrimp, one of the most commonly cultured aquaculture species worldwide, especially in China, India, and Thailand. Today, shrimp producers are facing enormous challenges such as disease outbreaks and increasing feed costs. However, most of them have no way of evaluating their operational performance due to the lack of data and a standardized system. As such, I will be constructing a database using growth performance data gathered from different countries, and then building a system that allows for systematic comparisons of performance across farm operations. This will enable farmers to benchmark their farm performance against other operations. As a result, shrimp farmers will be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses and employ better strategies for their operations. Ultimately, I hope my work will benefit shrimp producers worldwide by reducing their costs of operation and increasing profitability.

When I am not busy with Excel spreadsheets in Room 047, I enjoy exercising on the badminton court, rock climbing wall and in aikido classes. I also like hanging out with fish in the lab.