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Aquamax evolved from previous projects The excessive reliance of aquacultue on marine fisheries - derived feedstuffs has already led to dedicated projects such as RAFOA (Research on Alternatives to Fish Oil in Aquaculture, coordinated by the University of Stirling, Scotland) and PEPPA (Perspectives of Plant Protein Use in Aquaculture, coordinated by INRA, France) under the 5th framework of the EU.
These projects demonstrated that significant reductions can be achieved in the levels of FO and FM in farmed fish diets, such demonstrations being further promoted by FORM, a thematic network project to deliver the results to all stakeholders concerned. Simultaneously replacing fish meal and fish oil In RAFOA and PEPPA, there was no attempt replace both FM and FO simultaneously. In Aquamax, in line with aquafeed industry practices and foreseeing future inevitable changes, target levels were fixed for markedly reduced incorporation of both FM and FO simultaneously for each of the different species being studied (Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, gilthead seabream, carps).
Table: Current percentages of fish meal and fish oil in feeds of fish farmed in Europe
and the percentages targeted in AquaMax.
| | Current levels | Targets in Aquamax | | | Fish Meal | Fish Oil | Fish Meal | Fish Oil | | | % | % | % | % | | Atlantic Salmon | 35-45 | 25-33 | 12-16 | 8-12 | | Rainbow Trout | 30-35 | 20-25 | 5 | 5 | | Sea Bream | 40-45 | 15-20 | 15 | 10 | | Carp | 20-25 | 05-08 | 0 | 0
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‘Aquamax’ was designed to identify and achieve major levels of replacement of both fish meal and fish oil with sustainable alternatives in fish feeds for Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, sea bream and carp; it was important not to compromise the growth performance or the health and welfare of the fish species, nor the health benefits or the consumer acceptability.
Novel diets with a low content of fish meal and fish oil have been developed for: Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, gilthead sea bream, common carp and Indian major carp.The new ‘Aquamax’ diets have been tested in short and long-term feeding and field trials. The radical dietary changes developed in ‘Aquamax’ have required particularly extensive and thorough monitoring and evaluation of the different fish species fed on these new diets. ‘Aquamax’ has achieved most of this by developing and applying molecular genetic technology using powerful performance-monitoring tools based on transcriptomics and also by the application of proteomic techniques. These approaches also contributed to our understanding of the underlying molecular and physiological mechanisms that determine the fish’s ability to convert the new diets into high quality nutritional products, and their capacity to cope with these diets so as to ensure their health and welfare. Results confirm that both fish meal and fish oil in feeds can be substantially replaced, without affecting the growth performance of the fish and their feed/nutrient utilisation.
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Fish feed 
