Genomic and nutritional innovations for genetically superior farmed fish to improve efficiency in European aquaculture

Project Information

AquaIMPACT

Grant agreement ID: 818367

DOI

10.3030/818367

Project closed

EC signature date 5 October 2018

Start date 1 January 2019

End date 31 December 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 6 726 811,39

EU contribution

€ 6 149 963,14

Coordinated by

LUONNONVARAKESKUS
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - AquaIMPACT (Genomic and nutritional innovations for genetically superior farmed fish to improve efficiency in European aquaculture)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

EU's aquaculture is a source of healthy food, fundamental to food security, and a major contributor to globally increasing seafood consumption. Both feed development and selective breeding have been key methods enabling the expansion of aquaculture and making aquaculture more sustainable. Yet, novel methods of genomic selection and novel feed ingredients need to be implemented more widely among the industry in a cost-effective way.

AquaIMPACT is a major effort to integrate the fields of fish breeding and fish nutrition to increase the competiveness of aquaculture of Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, gilthead sea bream and European sea bass. AquaIMPACT focused on:
1. Enhancing aquaculture breeding programs with genomics.
2. Tailored nutritional strategies for more robust, healthy, nutritious and resource-efficient fish originating from breeding programs.
3. Novel advances in digitalisation, internet-of-things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) implemented for breeding, nutritional and feeding applications.
4. Demonstrating the impact of the developed method on industry profit and on environment, and investing in future.

Several genomic and nutritional products, software, hardware, improved services and practices have been demonstrated to be useful and cost-effective, and are being implemented by the partners.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Genetic progress already made by breeding programs was quantified for production, body composition and feed utilisation related traits. The impact of these changes on farm profit, nutritional needs and environmental effects were quantified. The results are exploited as advertisements of breeding programs and to encourage further investments on breeding.

Several advancements were made that aid breeding program managers to implement genomic selection in Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, gilthead sea bream and European sea bass. Novel protocols for recording traits under commercial conditions (e.g. disease resistance, product quality) were developed. Automated phenotyping device, smart-computational methods and genotyping strategies were demonstrated to reduce phenotyping and genotyping costs while limiting the impact on selection accuracy. Practical production plans, costs and benefit calculations, and return times of investments of implementing genomic selection were assessed for the partners' breeding programs. To aid in implementing the developed methods, a software was developed to assess the costs and benefits of alternative breeding designs. These methods are exploited by breeding programs or provided as a service by the service companies.

Performance and health of fish fed 'future diets' with functional additives and limited amounts of fish oil and fish meal were documented. The tested pre-products and novel diet formulations are being developed for further commercial use by the feed companies. Modulation of fish gut microbiome was shown through flexible diet formulations and genetic selection, and microbiota holds a promise to be an indicator to be used in diet development and assessment of fish health. The microbiota analysis is provided as a service by AquaIMPACT partners.

A bio-mathematical model was developed that quantifies the impact of selective breeding on the need to change feed composition. Data on fish performance and diet composition from hundreds of studies were used to calibrate the FEEDNETICS(tm) software. This software allows to develop more sustainable and cost-effective feeds, and allows fish farms to benchmark in silico alternative commercials feeds in terms of fish performance, flesh quality, waste, and feed costs. The software is available through licensing and as a pay-per-service basis.

Consumer studies were performed in three countries to assess the perception of consumers on alternative breeding, nutritional and rearing practices and fish products. In general, consumers react positively to the methods developed in AquaIMPACT.

Active dissemination has been practiced via 67 news articles in our Newsletter, 36 scientific publications, social media platforms (X: @aqua_impact) and via webinars. AquaIMPACT generated two policy briefs relevant for the industry, and a Breakfast Policy Briefing event was organised in the EU parliament (https://projects.luke.fi/aquaimpact/materials/policy-briefs/). A total of 13 Business Plans were generated. See our promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsuyVkzdfd4

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Progress beyond the state of the art

Both breeding and nutrition technologies have been fundamental for developing aquaculture, but mostly as separate technologies without much cross over between them to reach a common goal. AquaIMPACT integrated the genetic progress made by breeding programs both with bioenergetic models and nutritional strategies based on new feed ingredients and supplements, and boosted the technologies with digitalisation and smart-software.

AquaIMPACT contributes to the following expected impacts:

• Demonstrate that investment in sustainable aquaculture research and innovation leads to the creation of new value chains, markets, growth and jobs in coastal, offshore and landlocked areas.
• Improve consumers' awareness, perceptions and acceptability of the European aquaculture products and methods.
• Contribute to the creation of improved sustainable aquaculture systems and implement productive and resilient aquaculture practices that maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems and strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change.
• Improve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable aquaculture.
• Contribute to the utilisation of genetic resources.
• Contribute to increasing available, accessible, affordable and nutritious food and feed, while conserving natural resources and contributing to climate change mitigation.
• Improve the professional skills and competences of those working and being trained to work within the blue economy.
• Contribute to policymaking in research, innovation and technology.