Butyrins: the cool new kid on the block in aquafeed
The aquacultural production is a constantly and steadily growing sector in the last decades and it is prognosed to grow even more in the future. It increased by 6.6 % since the year 2020 and over 57 % of aquatic animal products are used for human consumption (FAO, 2024).
New challenges that come with a growing industry
With this rapid growth, concerns are rising more and more about the sustainability of the sector and the negative influences on wild stock to provide fish meal and fish oil for aqua feed production. The aqua sector has the highest demand compared with other livestock production for fish meal and fish oil (Poultry, Pig, others) (IFFO, 2024; Palma et al., 2023). This has more relevance for carnivorous fishes, like salmon or trout, as there is a trend to find even more alternative (plant-based) feed raw materials to exchange fishmeal and -oil in the diets. With plant-based diets, certain nutritional challenges come hand in hand. Challenges such as the presence of antinutritional compounds (phytate, saponins, a.o.), deficiency in long-chain polyunsaturated Omega 3 (n3) fatty acids an imbalances in n6 to n3 ratio or amino acid limitations (e.g. lysine, methionine). These possible influences may have negative effects on zootechnical and health parameters, also an increase of pro-inflammatory indicators can be observed, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract (Palma et al., 2023).
Butyric acid – a valuable tool to support the intestinal tract
It is commonly known that short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), with the focus on butyric acid and its compounds like sodium butyrate, promote gut integrity, epithelial function and absorptive metabolisms. In studies it was shown, that the use of butyric acid as a feed additive in fish diets had positive influences on the immune response, the intestinal homeostasis, an increase of anti-inflammatory agents and also acted as an energy source for enterocytes. Feeding butyrate to fish receiving plant-based diets showed highly beneficial effects on reversing or ameliorating potential negative effects of plant ingredients in the diets (Palma et al., 2023).
Nowadays tributyrins are studied more and more in aquatic animals production to investigate and further understand all the possible positive influences in aqua nutrition, which will support the vision of the “Blue Transformation” as an additional tool even more in the future.
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