ProtoNutrition, Robustness, Oxygen and Omega-3 in Salmon (ProtoROOS)

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Our hypotheses are that prior nutritional history (proto-nutrition) has an impact on subsequent nutritional requirements as the fish seeks to obtain a net level of key nutrients in their system to sustain growth. Additionally, that the occurrence of "challenging" environmental conditions, through hypoxia (and reciprocal CO2 increase), impacts nutritional responses, not by changing the animals demands per se, but rather by an overall down-regulation of feed intake resulting in an apparent need for an increased nutrient concentration in the feed. These hypotheses contend that nutritional requirements for fish should be expressed as a function of their daily nutrient demand relative to total energy intake and growth demands (akin to a recommended daily intake, RDI), not as a proportion of the diet as has historically been the case. This is a major conceptual shift in the notion of nutritional requirements in the aquaculture domain.
By addressing both hypotheses, we will improve our ability to manage the nutritional requirements of Atlantic salmon more effectively and efficiently through their lifecycle. This will enable greater utilisation of sustainable feeds formulated with very low levels of marine ingredients, through that better understanding the complexities associated with essential nutrient demands and how to supply them. There are elements of the nutritional programming concept in parts of this project in that we will, for the first time, test the hypothesis that proto-nutrition during the salmon's freshwater phase of life will have an impact on subsequent requirements. Specifically, that the potential fortification of a salmon's diet when it is young may allow a reduction in demands later in life during a more resource demanding stage. This will have huge implications for how much of the finite marine resources will need to be used in satisfying the animals requirements at the more resource-use-intensive later stages during the seawater phase of production

See Lead Proposal from Stirling