Microalgae biorefinery concept – usage of residual biomass in aquafeeds | SPAROS I&D

NEWS

Microalgae biorefinery concept – usage of residual biomass in aquafeeds

A partnership of SPAROS and Center of Marine Sciences of Algarve (Faro, Portugal) assessed the effect of a 10% incorporation of defatted microalgal biomass (Tetraselmis sp. CTP4), at the expense of soybean meal, on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility and physiological response to confinement stress in gilthead seabream juveniles.

The present study revealed that deffated microalgal biomass, issued from biorefinery processes, had no detrimental effect on growth, whole-body composition and nutrient retention, while increased the apparent digestibility of energy and phosphorous. Also, after an acute confinement stress, fish fed diet with deffated microalgal biomass presented significantly lower plasma cortisol. Overall results showed that this downstream from microalgae biorefinery processes, could potentially spare the use of soybean meal in aquaculture feeds, contributing towards a reduction of the current protein deficit in the European market. As part of its continuous effort to promote the use of microalgae in aquaculture feeds, SPAROS has formulated, manufactured the experimental diets and conducted the trial.

This study was part of a PhD grant and funded by project 24517_VALORMAR supported by Compete 2020, Lisboa 2020, CRESC Algarve 2020, Portugal 2020

You can access the article here.