Physiocare

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

During the last decades, numerous scientific works have been carried out to optimize the fish farm conditions and improved the productivity. To this end, a special attention has been given to the fish nutrition in term of nutrient levels and raw material compositions. These commercial feed compositions allow an efficient growth under favourable and stable environmental conditions but do not consider suboptimal field conditions which include transportation, handling (e.g. vaccination), water temperature fluctuations and water oxygen level reductions, all of which have a cascade effect on the fish physiology and their nutritional needs. As such, the standard commercial feeds could be unbalanced when good farming conditions are compromised. Current commercial practices in salmon farming involves several events that promote stress, such as handling and crowding prior to transportation, or sea lice treatments. Stress negatively affects the fish welfare and robustness, as it can have a transient negative effect on cellular stress levels and mucosal barriers, leaving the animals more susceptible to infections. In this project we will be testing a new in-feed solution to increase the robustness towards stress, improving welfare and productivity of farmed salmon