Location: Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research
Project Number: 2050-10600-001-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Dec 25, 2024
End Date: Dec 24, 2029
Objective:
Objective 1: Identify sustainably produced feed ingredients and dietary formulations that meet nutrient requirements and minimize effluent wastes.
Sub-objective 1.A: Identify novel ingredients for use in rainbow trout feed formulations for enhancement of key production parameters.
Sub-objective 1.B: Evaluate the suitability of a new protein solubility index as an accurate and rapid in vitro predictor of protein quality for rainbow trout.
Sub-objective 1.C: Develop and test effects of candidate formulations on production efficiency and waste production in different culture systems.
Sub-objective 1.D: Improve feed and fecal physical characteristics and water quality through addition of enzymes (hydrolytic or phytase) and natural binders to plant-based feeds fed to rainbow trout.
Sub-objective 1.E: Utilize existing methods and develop improved methods for measuring fecal quality.
Sub-objective 1.F: Neutralize protease inhibitors by plant gene editing to improve protein utilization and fecal characteristics of rainbow trout fed high levels of soybean meal.
Objective 2: Develop breeding strategies that rapidly adapt salmonids to optimal production efficiency and well-being on plant and algal based diets.
Sub-objective 2.A: Develop algal processing methods for nutrient extraction.
Sub-objective 2.B: Evaluate algal nutritional isolates in trout feeds.
Approach:
Objective 1: Identify sustainably produced feed ingredients and dietary formulations that meet nutrient requirements and minimize effluent wastes.
Identification, thorough evaluation, and selection of suitable alternative ingredients is crucial to promote aquaculture sustainability. Evaluation of candidate ingredients should examine ingredient composition, nutrient digestibility and utilization, palatability, fish performance, and fecal characteristics. For Objective 1, the overall hypothesis for the six subobjectives is that dietary components effect trout utilization, and in turn the fecal matter produced from these formulated feeds differentially effect downstream water quality. Experimental approaches to address this objective include 1) identifying and testing novel feed ingredients in functional diets for their effect on production parameters; 2) testing if a new method, determination of protein solubility index, can be used to more rapidly assess protein quality of feed components; 3) testing candidate dietary formulations effects on production parameters and water quality under different culture conditions; 4) test effects on the addition of specific enzymes and natural binders to plant-based feeds on fecal stability; 5) test existing methods and look to develop improved methods for assessing fecal quality; and 6) test if neutralization of plant protease inhibitors can improve fecal characteristics in fish fed soybean based feeds. In these experimental approaches we will look at a number of different alternative ingredients, most of which some relative information is available. If there are problems, there are still hundreds of other ingredients we can test.
Objective 2: Develop breeding strategies that rapidly adapt salmonids to optimal production efficiency and well-being on plant and algal based diets.
In Objective 2, the focus is on evaluating algae as a sustainable alternative fishmeal and/or soybean meal in aquaculture feeds and then utilize the best determined feed to determine if nutritional programming of fish can be effective in improving fecal quality as opposed to non-nutritional programmed fish. There are four sub-objectives to the main objective which include testing different algae varieties and methods to improve protein availability of algal extracts in the first two. In the last two sub-ojectives, the project looks to evaluate if either maternal or nutritional programming is effective in improving fecal quality when these fish are reared on plant-based feeds. If issues occur, planned contingencies to the first two objectives look to test other available algae species and utilize a plethora of other processing methods available to maximize protein availability. In regards to the nutritional programming, no other programming methods are available, but the comparisons to fish previously selected for improved growth and utilization of plant-based diets will be informative.