Project overview
Supported by the Research Council of Norway as Project Establishment Support within International HAVBRUK2
Duration 2019
Scope Create an international network to collect and disseminate information about tilapia quality and aquaculture
Team
Institute of Biotechnology and Food Science, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
Aquaculture Cristalina, Brazil
São Paulo State University (UNESP), Brazil
Description
The project developed a platform that provides an informal environment to build new relationships between aquaculture and research institutes to collect and disseminate the knowledge on tilapia nutritional quality and husbandry
Experiment
Pilot analyses of tilapia from Brazilian aquaculture were performed to test sampling and analytical methods to determine fish quality
International collaboration
The project collected different issues that might compromise international collaboration in related fields
Perspectives
The project aims to capture the obtained knowledge, lessons learned and best practices for the benefit of future international projects
Project stages
Sharing of available data
Tilapia Sampling: Red and white tilapia (500 g) were collected in Cristalina aquaculture, Brazil
Husbandry practices description was done by Cristalina
Brazil ? Norway shipment of frozen fish samples was carried out by the UNESP team
Analysis of the nutritional value of red, white, black tilapia, pangasius and salmon was carried out by NTNU
Results
We have created a strong network between aquaculture and researchers that lead to:
Sampling of different breeds of tilapia
Assessment of tilapia husbandry practices
Tilapia international shipment
Analysis of the nutritional quality of fish on a molecular level
Statistical analysis of multidisciplinary data
We have created a platform of stakeholders eager to participate in tilapia research and dissemination
We have obtained valuable preliminary data on the quality of tilapia across countries and aquacultures
We will continue our collaboration in the future
Conclusions
Our research shows that different fish (e.g. salmon and tilapia) should not be considered as competitors because they provide different sets of nutrients for the human diet. A balanced fish diet has to contain both of these fish to provide the whole spectrum of important nutritional compounds for our organism
Acknowledgements
This project was made possible thanks to the:
Excursion to Norwegian aquacultures that was organized by Innovation Norway Trøndelag within Nor-Fishing 2018
Seminar Presentation Brazilian Fish Farming Market that was organized by Innovation Norway South America
Support of the Research Council of Norway
Thanks to Dr. Renata Costa Prado, Senior Project Manager, Innovation Norway Rio de Janeiro for her valuable help
Obtained during the project data will be used to improve tilapia marketing by Brazilian aquaculture
Brazilian aquaculture and UNESP plan future use of the developed extraction procedure and molecular analysis of tilapia quality.
NTNU and UNESP plan publish scientific article based on the project results.
The DiStressTilapia project will focus on the foundation of a comprehensive network between different scientific institutions from Norway and Brazil and tilapia producers. Such network will be used as a platform for the creation and dissemination of knowledge on Tilapia quality and safety. Pilot analyses of tilapia from Brazilian aquacultures will be carried out during the project. The aim of this collaboration is to gather enough knowledge on tilapia to lay the foundation for further in-depth research on improving tilapias breeds, wellbeing and nutritional value by changing some of the analysed factors.