Are the fatty acids in certain microalgae suitable to replace fish
oil in feed for salmonids? Masters student Chuyuan Zhang from the
University of Saskatchewan in Canada is looking for answers at the
Aquaculture Protein Centre in Norway.
In Norway, Ms Zhang is producing feed at APC and performing a
digestibility trial on Atlantic salmon in sea water at Nofima's research
station at Sunndalsøra. There she will feed the fish, observe them,
take samples of feed and faeces, and then analyse them.
Her work involves lab work and discussions with her co-supervisor and
other fish nutritionists at APC. APC has close collaboration with the
University of Saskatchewan on this industry funded project. Back in
Canada, Ms Zhang is doing similar experiments with digestibility and
growth on Rainbow trout.
"I am particularly interested in finding out how well the fatty acids of
the algae are digested, and if they affect the fatty acid profile of
the fish compared to salmon that is fed fish oil," says Ms Zhang. She is
also looking at other aspects, such as energy and protein
digestibility.
"We assume algae could be a very feasible product for fish oil replacement in feed for salmonids", says Ms Zhang.
Ms Zhang, who is from China, is in Norway for three months.
"At home I learned a lot about tropical fish such as carp, and I got
curious about other species. It was then very interesting to go to
Canada and see large scale aquaculture production of salmon, and now in
Norway. I really like working with fish", she says.
Ns Zhang is supervised by Dr Murray Drew of the University of
Saskatchewan and Dr Margareth Øverland at APC. Dr Drew was a guest
researcher at APC in 2010.
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