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Digestibility, the key to sustainability
At the Coppens Research Centre we can test the growth performance of new feed formulations.
The growth performance of a feed formulation is determined by various variables, such as the protein level and the energy density. The underlying determinant of the growth performance of a fish feed is the digestibility. The fish can only utilize the components of a feed that are actually digested, and a high digestibility of the ingredients and energy in the feed will result in a better performance of the feed. Next to that, a high digestibility will result in fewer faeces and thus less pollution and pressure on the environment. Therefore we have extended the CRC with metabolic tanks which allows us to measure digestibility of individual raw materials. The tanks are built according to the so-called Guelph system and the faeces can be quantitatively collected. The collected faeces are subsequently analyzed and the digestibility of the various compounds in the feed can be calculated. This way, we are able to examine the potential of new fish feed ingredients and develop more sustainable key performing fish feeds.
