Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre (ARC), which runs the trials, admit that these trials, conducted on fish from 1 to 5 kg, showed excellent growth and a low feed conversion rate (FCR) on salmon given feed with 15% fishmeal and no land animal protein. Dr Alex Obach, Managing Director of Skretting ARC, gives some details saying that normally three feeds used and the best results came from an experimental feed using only 15 percent fishmeal together with active ingredients we are currently investigating. The two other feeds were a more conventional feed with 25 percent fishmeal and a similar experimental feed using 15 percent fishmeal but without the active ingredients.
According to Obach the results totally change our previous belief that the lower limit for fishmeal was 25 percent unless land animal proteins were used. At present, that is not possible for salmon production in Europe. The trials were conducted at Skretting ARC Fish Trials Station and Helgeland Havbruksstasjon, both located in Norway. The trial at Helgeland used three groups of 180 fish starting at around 2.6 kg. Over the 73 days they grew to around 4.7 kg. All three groups of fish showed excellent performance.
Dr Obach revealed that it is the first time we have achieved such good results in growth and FCR with low fishmeal feeds without using land animal proteins. Although Skretting will not implement the results yet in commercial feeds, they demonstrate a significant potential for extending our use of sustainable fishmeal over a much greater production of farmed Atlantic salmon.
