Decontaminated fishmeal and fish oil from the Baltic Sea are promising feed sources for Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus L.)-studies of flesh lipid quality and metabolic profile

The Baltic Sea is one of the world's most pollution-threatened brackish environments and limited direct consumption of fatty fish from the Baltic Sea is recommended. The use of decontaminated Baltic Sea fish raw materials as fish feed could be a strategy to recycle Baltic Sea nutrients back into food chain, while relieving pressure on aqua-feed in the growing aquaculture industry. In this study, defatted fishmeal and semi-purified fish oil from the Baltic Sea were used in fish feeds for Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus L.). The effects of the Baltic Sea-sourced fish feeds on flesh lipid quality and fish metabolomics, compared with a standard commercial feed as a control, were determined. ¹H NMR-based metabolomics studies indicated disturbances in energy metabolism and hepatic toxicity in fish fed both crude fishmeal and crude fish oil, associated with up-regulation (IGF-I, GHR-I, PPARα, PPARβ1A) and down-regulation (SREBP-1 and FAS) of hepatic genes expression. The content of n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids was not affected by the decontamination process. Thus, this short-term study demonstrates that decontaminating Baltic Sea-sourced fishmeal and fish oil reduces adverse effects in Arctic char. Practical applications: Decontaminated fish materials from the Baltic Sea were shown to be promising feed ingredients for Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus L.) compared with untreated Baltic Sea-sourced fish feed, which induced changes in fish physiology associated with energy metabolism and hepatotoxicity. Baltic Sea-sourced fish materials containing high levels of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are valuable feed ingredients.