By Jeff Schaeffer | AFS Co-Chief Science Editor. E-mail: [email protected]
Ethanol production has increased 13-fold from 2000 to 2013, and this has resulted in a concurrent increase in distillers dried grains (DDG), which are a byproduct of the fermentation process. While long used as feed for cattle, they have not been used widely in aquaculture due to mycotoxins present in the product. Wendy Sealey (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bozeman Fish Technology Center) and her colleagues used feeding trials with or without a mycotoxin deactivation product (Biofix Plus) to examine growth and food conversion of Oncorhynchus mykiss fed traditional diets containing fish meal, and a group in which 12% of the fish meal was replaced by DDG. They found no performance differences between traditional diets and those containing DDG. They also concluded that at 12% replacement mycotoxins did not need to be deactivated at all and were likely not an issue at that substitution rate. The North American Journal of Aquaculture continues to feature articles that push the boundaries of shifting cultured organisms away from fish meal diets, and this paper is an excellent and well-written example of that trend. We do note that one hypothetical outcome of this article is a dinner at a microbrew pub in which the beverage is obtained from fermentation, and the fish dinner might be obtained at least partially from the same process!
REFERENCE
Sealey, W. M., C. G. Hooley, K. A. Rosentrater, T. Gibson Gaylord, and F. T. Barrows. 2015. The effect of a mycotoxin deactivation product on growth of juvenile Rainbow Trout fed distillers dried grains. North American Journal of Aquaculture 77:429-436. dx.doi.org/10.1080/152 22055.2015.1029175
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