Research promotes animal welfare and environmental sustainability in aquaculture.

The FeedMi Consortium aims to develop tools to optimize fish production in recirculating aquaculture systems on an industrial scale .

At a time when aquaculture production seeks to respond to global fish consumption demands, the FeedMi project aims to optimize farming practices and improve the health and well-being of fish in aquaculture systems with water recirculation, largely promoting environmental sustainability of these production systems.

The main objective is to develope a set of nutritional and management tools to optimize the production of several fish species on an industrial scale using recirculating aquaculture systems. FeedMi project responds to the quality concerns of aquaculture products both in terms of respect to the nutritional quality and well-being of species as well as the sustainability of production. Within this “toolbox” is the development of functional diets for larvae and juveniles of sole, goldfish and sea bass that improve their immunocompetence and that promote resistance to stress and pathogenic bacteria. The project also seeks to develop computer models that allow the adaptation of diets to the nutritional needs of these species, the optimization of water quality and modulation of the microbial biofilter, in order to promote animal welfare and the environmental sustainability of aquaculture systems.

The FeedMi consortium is coordinated by SPAROS Lda., and integrates several partnerships as the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research of the University of Porto (CIIMAR-UP), Safistela SA, the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) and the University of Porto (Faculty of Sciences (FCUP) and Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS)).

The FeedMi project is funded by Compete 2020, CRESC Algarve 2020, Portugal 2020 and the European Regional Development Fund.