Services

About DISAFA: The Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA) performs research to deliver knowledge and innovation, and provide evidence-based sustainable solutions to current and future challenges. DISAFA has a strong experience in animal husbandry and animal nutrition as well as in product quality. In particular, in the fish nutrition sector, DISAFA researchers have particular experience on the use of alternative protein sources (insect, poultry by-products and vegetable meals) and lipid sources in aquafeed and their effects on growth, digestibility, product quality, intestinal health, microbiota and metabolic responses of freshwater fish species. Other expertise is related to the methods of fish slaughtering as well as the effect of stocking densities on the welfare of fish reared under organic aquaculture rules.

About the experimental farm: UNITO – AQUA is the experimental farm for freshwater fish nutrition, mainly dedicated to rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), can also be rear sturgeons – Acipenser baerii, A. trasmontanus, A. gueldenstaedtii. It is a flow-through open system of 12 × 3000L indoor, and 24 × 100L and 24 × 400L outdoor tanks, the water supplied from artesian well (constant 13 ± 1 °C). A digestibility system is composed of 2 series of 6 × 240L flow-through open system of cylinder-conical tanks with automatic feces collector.

The UNITO – AQUA allows experimental trials on all the stages of the trout lifecycle, and growth trials using sturgeons. The facility hosts research teams working on farmed salmonids providing scientific support to visiting scientists. A laboratory equipped with a vacuum machine, a bench colorimeter, a portable pH meter, a refrigerated chamber and -80°C freezer for sampling and storage of chilled and frozen samples is available to perform shelf-life trials. Research laboratories are also available at DISAFA (Grugliasco – about 25 km from the experimental infrastructure) with analytical equipment for nutrition related work: proximate, chemical and mineral composition, HPLC, GC, histology and microbiome analyses, flesh quality parameters (texture, TPA and cooking losses) and sensory analyses using untrained panellists and results can be coupled with results of electronic nose.

Services: Experimental trials on all the stages of the trout lifecycle, and growth trials using sturgeons, can be performed at UNITO–AQUA. The facility has research teams working on farmed salmonids that provide scientific support to visiting scientists. A laboratory equipped with a vacuum machine, a bench colorimeter, a portable pH meter, a refrigerated chamber and -80°C freezer for sampling and storage of chilled and frozen samples are available to perform shelf-life trials. Research laboratories are also available at DISAFA (Grugliasco – about 25 km from the experimental infrastructure) with analytical equipment for nutrition related work: proximate, chemical and mineral composition, HPLC, GC, histology and microbiome analyses, flesh quality parameters (texture, TPA and cooking losses) and sensory analyses using untrained panellists and results can be coupled with results of electronic nose.

Bioresources available

Juvenile and adult rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

Support offered

Access includes scientific advice on experimental design, use of tanks (including fish supply and daily maintenance) and/or insect rooms, routine sampling and biometric measurements, conservation of samples, and access to an office with internet communication. The trials are performed under the supervision of a scientific staff and implemented by skilled technical staff. Scientific support will include advice on experimental design and methodology, and documentation of results for all the experiments conducted in the project.

Modality of access

UNITO–AQUA unit of access is unit cost: tank/week. A typical access consists of 144 units of access (12 tanks for 12 weeks). Cold pellet fish feeds (not extruded) can be produced at the UNITO–AQUA (specific raw material should be provided by the user), while extruded feeds have to be provided by the user. Each user group is expected to stay for 10 days on average: 5 days at the beginning of the experiment to f inalize the technical protocol details and start the experiment, and 5 days at the end of the experiment for final measurements and sampling. Access includes the use of tanks and the trial follow-up (daily feeding and husbandry of fish manipulation, and sampling of fish). A total of 2 projects/year (288 units of access) is estimated.