Evolution of INRA research in the field of fish nutrition : exploring alternatives to marine fishery-derived ingredients

Abstract

Fish meal and oil are major ingredients in the feeds for intensively farmed fish. Current global aquaculture development leads to greaterdemands for these ingredients originating from wild fishery resources that have themselves been stagnant over the past several decades.A major part of our research efforts in the field of fish nutrition has thus focussed on research for alternatives to the marine fishery-basedraw materials. We present here a small overview of the evolution of research in this area : from estimating nutrient requirements to exploringthe mechanisms underlying nutrient utilisation as affected by dietary factors and addressing economic and environmental issues. Thescientific objectives have been to better understand protein and amino acid utilisation in order to reduce the contribution of protein forenergy purposes and to explore the limits in the utilisation of dietary non-protein energy sources such as fats and carbohydrates. Thepaper tries to illustrate the achievements in the area of replacement of fishmeal and fish oil in fish feeds contributing thus towards thesustainable development of fish farming.