Project Number: 1930-31000-007-04
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jul 15, 2003
End Date: Jul 14, 2008

Objective:
The objectives of this cooperative research project are to: (1) Determine the effect of oil source, fish oil only or a fish/plant oil mixture, on fish growth and product quality. (2) Determine if there is genetic variation for the ability to use plant derived oils and the time required for fillet quality to reflect the dietary source of oil.

Approach:
The evaluation effort will focus on rainbow trout families from the Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station and diets that are a commercial type diet formulated with fish oils or a mixture of fish and plant oils. The University of Idaho will conduct feeding trials to determine the combinations of diet production methods, ingredient source and content that will yield desired performance levels in rainbow trout. In addition to weight gain, the evaluation of the treatments (family and diet) will include measures of fillet fatty acid content and composition. This research will concurrently allow the genetic selection of families of rainbow trout with enhanced production efficiency and identification of diets that will yield optimum expression of commercial aquaculture production capacity.