New Delhi: New research from the University of Copenhagen and the Norwegian University of Life Science are trying to establish a new source of feed for salmon farming to resolve issues. Typically, the commercial-raised salmon eat fishmeal and fish oil that depend on world harvest fish, a costly practice in terms of resources. Nonetheless, the use of plants to feed the fish could be a health revolution for the fish, and a better option than consuming fish full of chemicals we take from the sea.
Wild salmon is a representative of predatory fish, which actively consume insects, as well as small fish and crustaceans. However, in farming conditions, plant-based feed can be expected to lower not only the environmental impact, but also enhance the quality of the salmon we consume.
Gimoning the Accessible Salmon Microbe
Plant based feed brings one major problem, salmon does not produce a majority of the enzymes necessary to digest plant matter. To this end, researchers have described the gut microbiota of Atlantic salmon and reported that the fish harbours 211 different microbial species. These bacteria are involved in the digesting nutrients and provide immune boosting services in the body.
Using next generation sequencing and routine molecular techniques for microbial ecology, a study published in Nature Microbiology described how the microbes assist the salmon in breaking down plant biproducts. “We can now tell which bacteria helps the salmon in its nutrient absorption capacity, and therefore can fine tune the feed to improve the salmon performance,” says Morten Tonsberg Limborg, an associate professor at the Globe Institute of University of Copenhagen.
Containing Antibiotic Resistance and Environment Pollution
Besides increasing the nutritional value of the existing feed, the new feed could also assist in countering antibiotic resistance. It might also come as a shock that Norwegian salmon farms already use very little of antibiotics in their production than is estimated. Researchers are now turning their focus towards trying to establish whether these low levels are in any way associated with low levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the gut of the salmon.
What can be glossed over is that the findings advanced here hold relevance that reaches beyond this study’s focal species: salmon. The outcome of the study could, therefore, be taken to enhance the sustainability of other sectors of animal farming. For example, insect protein – a highly sustainable feed source – may be created from the knowledge of how the salmon gut microbiome operates.
Limborg also mentions that some types of gut bacteria synthesize certain B vitamins, which means that the Rays of future feeds will be designed to support these “microbiome factories.” Such innovations could minimize the cost of vitamin supplements which are usually expensive thereby increasing sustainability of aquaculture as well as animal agriculture.
