USDA scientists turn barley into high-protein fish food for salmon and trout
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SCOM] July 15, 2014
Scientists at the USDA and at Montana Microbial Products (MMP) have engineered barley to serve as a nutritional, high-protein fish feed ingredient for farmed salmon and trout diets.
Researchers were able to substantially increase barley's protein content. Barley typically contains 10 to 12 percent protein, but 40 to 60 percent protein is needed in diets of carnivorous fish like rainbow trout and salmon. But the new enzymatic process patented by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and MMP concentrates protein by removing the carbohydrates in barley and turning them into an ethanol coproduct, utilizing all the nutrients in the grain.
According to Rick Barrows, a fish physiologist with the ARS's Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research Unit in Aberdeen, Idaho, this new high-protein product produced by this technology should help fill the gap for more plant-based protein sources as alternatives to fishmeal, which is typically made from small ocean fish...(more)
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