Microbial Enhancement of Flax to Replace Fishmeal and Oil in Salmonid Diets

Flax containing omega 3 fatty acids and relatively high protein content offers advantages as a potential source of plant protein and oil to replace fishmeal and oil in aquaculture feeds; reducing both pressure on marine fisheries and the principal source of contaminants in farmed fish. MMP ahs used innovative fungal culture technology in separate processes to develop low cost, multi activity cellulose enzymes and to enhance protein content and nutritional quality of soybeans. Integrating these processes to convert fiber and increase protein and oil concentration of flax would overcome the principal barriers to using flax in aquaculture feeds. In Phase I, MMP will meet three objectives to demonstrate technical feasibility; 1) determine the best process design for integrating fiber conversion and nutritional enhancement; 2) develop enhanced flax that meets principal nutritional criteria for replacing fishmeal in salmonid diets; 3) test acceptance of enhanced flax in initial trout feeding trials