Inclusion of oil from transgenic Camelina sativa in feed effectively supplies EPA and DHA to Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) grown to market size in seawater pens

• Main Authors: Tocher, Douglas R, Sprague, Matthew, Han, Lihua, Sayanova, Olga, Norambuena, Fernando, Napier, Johnathan A, Betancor, Mónica B
• Other Authors: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Institute of Aquaculture, Rothamsted Research, BioMar AS, orcid:0000-0002-8603-9410, orcid:0000-0002-0723-2387, orcid:0000-0003-1626-7458
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2024
• Subjects: Aquaculture; Farmed salmon; Omega-3Transgenic oil; EPA and DHA; Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/35983; http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/retrieve/1bad4be9-8dc0-493a-a25c-eec2ddcd72ff/VALIDOIL%20Paper%20REVISED-FINAL.pdf

Atlantic salmon were fed either a diet reflecting current commercial feeds with added oil supplied by a blend of fish oil and rapeseed oil (COM), or a diet formulated with oil from transgenic Camelina sativa containing 20% EPA+DHA (TCO). Salmon were grown from smolt to market size (>3kg) in sea pens under semi-commercial conditions. There were no differences in growth, feed efficiency or survival between fish fed the TCO or COM diets at the end of the trial. Levels of EPA+DHA in flesh of salmon fed TCO were significantly higher than in fish fed COM. A 140g fillet from TCO-fed salmon delivered 2.3g of EPA+DHA, 67% of the weekly requirement level recommended by many health agencies, and 1.5-fold more than the 1.5g of EPA+DHA for COM-fed fish. Oil from transgenic Camelina supported growth and improved the nutritional quality of farmed salmon in terms of increased “omega-3” supply for human consumers.