Facilitating increased use of inexpensive protein-rich byproducts from bio-fuel in feed for Nile tilapia through fermentation

Through 20 generations of selection, Nile tilapia is the aquaculture species with highest potential for rapid growth and efficient feed utilisation. It is thus the aquaculture species with highest increase in production world-wide, and has great prospects , both for the high end fillet market in and as a major animal protein sources in developing countries. Still, a major challenge is to feed resources that can facilitate further development toward this end. Fortunately, there is still an increasing acc ess to inexpensive waste products as protein sources. For example, the growth in bio-fuel economy will result in new several new protein sources from waist products. Among these, upgrading of rapeseed cake seems most interesting for tilapia feed, due to h igh accessibility in the tropical markets and the need for moderate processing temperatures. Generally, Anti-nutritional factors (ANF) in rapeseed press-cake render this feed ingredient virtually useless in feeds for monogastric animals. Several studies have on the other hand shown that most of the anti-nutrients in rapeseed can be eliminated by fermentation, and improvement in the nutritional value of feed ingredients from plants by fermentation have even been observed in salmon. The use of fermentatio n techniques to eliminate ANF has a long tradition in the Orient and is presently being further developed and adapted to feed production at the Aquaculture Protein Centre, a Centre of excellence hosted by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. In coll aboration with two Chinese groups, the Zhejiang Wanli University in Ningbo and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan and the Norwegian tilapia company GenoMar, APC will develop fermentation techniques to facilitate increased use of inexpensive protein-rich byproducts from bio-fuel in feed for tilapia through fermentation. Phase I will be carried out at UMB, while an eventual second stage will be done both in China and Norway.