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. 2016 Jun 3;11(6):e0156684.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156684. eCollection 2016.

Towards Sustainable Aquafeeds: Complete Substitution of Fish Oil with Marine Microalga Schizochytrium sp. Improves Growth and Fatty Acid Deposition in Juvenile Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Pallab K Sarker  1 , Anne R Kapuscinski  1 , Alison J Lanois  1 , Erin D Livesey  1 , Katie P Bernhard  1 , Mariah L Coley  1
Affiliations

Towards Sustainable Aquafeeds: Complete Substitution of Fish Oil with Marine Microalga Schizochytrium sp. Improves Growth and Fatty Acid Deposition in Juvenile Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Pallab K Sarker et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

We conducted a 84-day nutritional feeding experiment with dried whole cells of DHA-rich marine microalga Schizochytrium sp. (Sc) to determine the optimum level of fish-oil substitution (partial or complete) for maximum growth of Nile tilapia. When we fully replaced fish oil with Schizochytrium (Sc100 diet), we found significantly higher weight gain and protein efficiency ratio (PER), and lower (improved) feed conversion ratio (FCR) and feed intake compared to a control diet containing fish oil (Sc0); and no significant change in SGR and survival rate among all diets. The Sc100 diet had the highest contents of 22:6n3 DHA, led to the highest DHA content in fillets, and consequently led to the highest DHA:EPA ratios in tilapia fillets. Schizochytrium sp. is a high quality candidate for complete substitution of fish oil in juvenile Nile tilapia feeds, providing an innovative means to formulate and optimize the composition of tilapia juvenile feed while simultaneously raising feed efficiency of tilapia aquaculture and to further develop environmentally and socially sustainable aquafeeds. Results show that replacing fish oil with DHA-rich marine Sc improves the deposition of n3 LC PUFA levels in tilapia fillet. These results support further studies to lower Schizochytrium production costs and to combine different marine microalgae to replace fish oil and fishmeal into aquafeeds.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Linear correlation between the Sc inclusion levels in diet and DHA (mg/100g fillet) deposition in fish fillet.
Each point represents the average value (±SE) of three tanks per diet. The amount of DHA is described by the function of y = 7.1423x + 155.8. The correlation coefficient (r) was 0.9459 (p<0.01).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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