Web Summary The IFREMER is the French Institute for Research and Exploitation of Sea Resources. The IFREMER Fish Nutrition Laboratory is a part of the joint research unit, Nuage (Nutrition, Genetics and Aquaculture) by three institutions (IFREMER, INRA, University of Bordeaux I). The laboratory has eighteen permanent staff and about 10 students or temporary scientists. It is located in Brest, in a large center hosting 600 people involved in marine sciences. Nutrition research at IFREMER includes addressing the challenge of formulating and manufacturing a compound diet which can replace live feeds in the feeding of marine fish larvae. Past research focused on understanding the onset of the digestive capacity in fish larvae and found that digestion during larval stages is different from that of juveniles. The maturation of digestive functions occurred after a few weeks of development (day 25 post hatching in sea bass reared at 20°C). Before this maturation, the larvae are able to digest peptides (2 to 20 amino acids chain) and phospholipids. The findings led to the formulation of a patented diet (WO0064273) which is now used at large scale in hatcheries for sea bass, sea bream, turbot, cod, red drum, barramundi. This diet generally induces better survival and growth than the classical live feeds. The diet is now tested and adapted to new species such as halibut, wolffish and yellow croaker, in collaboration with Canadian and Chinese teams. Current research on larval nutrition aims to improve the quality of fish larvae produced in hatchery. Different environmental or nutritional parameters induce skeletal abnormalities and these are currently investigated in an EU funded program. Correlations between dietary factors and the occurrence of specific skeletal deformities are observed and their molecular basis investigated. The resulting knowledge is expected to improve diet formulation and consequently, the quality of hatchery reared larvae. Full Paper
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