ShellFeed
Risk assessment of algal toxins in new marine feed sources for salmon
ShellFeed project aims to enhance understanding of the toxicity of these algal toxins in salmon following dietary exposure, and to investigate the potential transfer of these toxins or their metabolites into fish fillets or by-products.
End
31. Oct 2026
Funded by
FHF – Norwegian Seafood Research Fund.
Cooperation
Norwegian Veterinary Institute (project leader) and National Research Council, Canada.
Project Manager(s):
Other Participants:
Background
Sustainable salmon feed is of crucial importance for the future of the Norwegian salmon farming industry. Today, the feed accounts for more than three-quarters of the climate footprint that a Norwegian salmon causes on its way to a dinner plate in Europe. Approximately 92 percent of the raw materials used in Norwegian aquaculture feed are currently imported. The current government has therefore set itself the goal of increasing the proportion of feed based on Norwegian resources and using only sustainable ingredients by 2030.
The report “Råvareløftet” proposes to explore a number of potential new feed raw materials, including shellfish and tunicates.
Shellfish such as mussels are a valuable source of marine fatty acids and proteins that are important in fish nutrition. Mussels feed on algae in the marine environment by filtering large amounts of seawater. Mussels can therefore absorb algae toxins such as okadaic acid and dinophysis toxins (causing diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP)) as well as saxitoxins and gonyautoxins (causing paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP)). Algae toxins are generally relatively stable molecules that can be concentrated in shellfish and other filtering animals. Therefore, they can be found in products made from them, such as fish feed ingredients.
The main hypothesis of the project is that the toxic equivalence method used in the risk assessment of OA/DTX and STX toxins for humans can also be used to evaluate the risk to fish health and the transfer potential of fish products. Using this approach, the data required to perform the necessary risk assessments of algal toxins in new marine feed sources for salmon will be obtained.
Main goal
To obtain knowledge about the toxicity of two important groups of algae toxins (OA/DTX and STX) in salmon after exposure via the feed, and about the potential transfer of these toxins or their metabolites to fish fillets or by-products.
The project is led by The Norwegian Veterinary Institute, with Nofima contributing expertise in feed production, fish feeding trials-both in salmon parr and post smolt and fish health analysis.