Fish meal quality assessment for Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) reared in sea water

Studies were conducted to investigate the quality of 16 fish meals for Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar L.) reared in sea water, and to assess in vitro and in vivo methods for the measurement of the quality of the protein in fish meals. The commercial fish meals tested were Canadian-produced (herring, groundfish, and mixed meals) and were of West Coast and East Coast origin; they included silver hake (Russian origin), two mackerel meals (Chilean) and Norwegian fish meal (Norse-LT94®). In addition, five herring meals were produced in the laboratory to assess the influence of processing conditions and freshness of the raw material on fish meal quality. The dilute-pepsin digestibility was the preferred in vitro assay to evaluate the protein quality of herring meals for Atlantic salmon, but this assay correlated poorly with the results from in vivo assays when other types of fish meals (menhaden, mackerel, silver hake, groundfish) were included.