| Summary: |
The early stages of fish development chiefly determine the rearing success in aquaculture. After a few weeks of hatching, the introduction of inert microdiets occurs with relative success, with fish growth performance and survival still fall below optimised levels. Furthermore, little is known about how microdiets influence the microbial community in the digestive tract fish during the early developmental stages or how they modulate immunocompetence during this period. Within this context, project FeedMi aims at developing a set of nutritional and management tools that will contribute to an optimisation of husbandry practices for the early stages of fish development at
an industrial scale. Focusing on Senegalese sole, but also including seabream and seabass as model species, project FeedMi will create: 1) functional diets for the early stages of fish that will modulate their immunocompetence, as well as the microbial in their digestive tracts; 2) a software tool to improve feed management in sole; and 3) technology to modulate the microbial community in the biofilter of marine hatcheries. This integrated solution is proposed by a consortium headed by SPAROS Lda, a pioneer SME in the development of nutritional tools for the aquaculture market, also including SAFIESTELA S.A., a highly successful Portuguese sole hatchery, the University of Porto,
the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research and the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere, research-driven entities that will input their highly scientific background to the project. The FeedMi functional solution will aim at an optimisation of husbandry practices for the early stages of fish development at an industrial scale, targeting commercialization for marine fish hatcheries located worldwide. |