Improving fish gut health and disease resistance by feeding insects and probiotics

水产养殖，即鱼类和水生植物的养殖，在加拿大是一个价值14亿美元的产业，需要进一步的支持，以确保我们供应当地海鲜，创造就业机会，吃有营养的食物，并减轻对野生渔业的压力。水产养殖业的一个主要问题是使用含有鱼粉和鱼油的饲料，这是不可持续的，因为它从野生环境中移走鱼来制作养殖的鱼。新的替代品，如昆虫和酵母，已经被提出，因为它们可以在有机废物流中生长，但对这些成分的研究还不多，特别是对淡水鱼。最近，人们发现，喂食昆虫和酵母可以改善鱼类肠道中的细菌群落，增强免疫反应。昆虫/酵母中由肠道细菌产生的特定脂肪酸可能是刺激鱼类肠道健康和生长的关键成分。这些机制还不是很清楚，缺乏关于鱼的种类、年龄、大小和疾病状态的影响的数据，除了饲料中的成分外，本项目的目的是评估可持续的饲料添加剂，如昆虫和酵母，对它们改善鱼的生长、肠道健康和免疫反应的能力。该项目将包括彩虹鲑鱼和斑马鱼，彩虹鲑鱼是安大略省养殖最多的鱼类，斑马鱼是将研究结果应用于其他鱼类的动物模型。我们将使用先进的营养学、组织学和分子分析来进行荟萃分析和三项动物试验，并对16S rDNA微生物群和mRNA转录体进行下一代测序。这项研究将通过展示这些饲料成分在提高鱼类产量、健康和福利方面的优势，为安大略省和加拿大的饲料公司和水产养殖生产商提供支持。该项目将帮助两所大学(Guelph大学和拉瓦尔大学)、一个政府机构(OMAFRA)和两家私营饲料配料公司(Oreka和Alltech)之间建立合作伙伴关系，同时培训7名HQP。

Aquaculture, the farming of fish and aquatic plants, is a $1.4 billion industry in Canada and needs further support to make sure we supply local seafood, create jobs, eat nutritious food and reduce pressures on wild fisheries. One major problem in the aquaculture industry is the use of feeds that contain fishmeal and fish oil, which is not sustainable since it removes fish from the wild to make farmed fish. New alternatives, such as insects and yeast, have been put forward since they can be grown on organic waste streams, but there has not been much research on these ingredients, especially for freshwater fish. Recently, feeding insects and yeast have been found to improve the community of bacteria in the gut of fish and enhance the immune response. Specific fatty acids within insects/yeast and produced by gut bacteria may be key components in stimulating gut health and growth of fish. These mechanisms are not well understood and there is a lack of data on influences of fish species, age, size and disease status when feeding insects and yeast, in addition to components in the feed.The aim of this project is to evaluate sustainable feed additives, such as insects and yeast, on their ability to improve the growth, gut health and immune response of fish. The project will involve rainbow trout, the most farmed fish in Ontario, and zebrafish, an animal model to apply the results to other fish species. We will use advanced nutritional, histological and molecular analyses to perform a meta-analysis and three animal trials with next generation sequencing of 16S rDNA microbiomes and mRNA transcriptomes. This research will support Ontario and Canadian feed companies and aquaculture producers by demonstrating the advantages of these feed ingredients to improve fish production, health and welfare. This project will help form partnerships between two universities (University of Guelph and Laval), a government agency (OMAFRA) and two private feed ingredient companies (Oreka and Alltech) while training 7 HQP.