Norway's Aquaculture Protein Center (APC) has found an interesting collaborator in Prof. Francisco Javier Moyano from the University of Almeria, Spain. His models for studying biochemical reactions in the digestive system of the fish, can add useful insights for the feed technologists and nutritionists at APC.

"When I first met with Margareth Øverland from APC, we soon realized we could benefit from each other", says Moyano.

The knowledge Moyano has in biochemistry combined with APC’s nutritional and feed technology knowledge, is useful to learn about how diets can be more efficiently used in fish. Through a guest researcher grant, Moyano is at APC for one month to see possibilities of future collaboration and to mutually benefit from each others expertise.

Centre Director of APC, Margareth Øverland, is enthusiastic about the collaboration: "We clearly have mutual research interests in developing a synergy between his research on advanced techniques with warm water species in the Mediterranean and our work with the cold water salmonids up her in the north."

Moyano is professor in animal production from the University of Almeria, but his main work is within fish nutrition. Over the past years, he and his colleagues have developed some in vitro techniques to simulate the digestive system of fish, including both the stomach and intestine. Now he’s setting up a preliminary trial with fish stomach tissue to study biochemical processes.

"If a feed ingredient has an effect on the fish in a digestibility or a growth trial, our in vitro system can help us learn why it has an effect. By comparing results of tissue study with in vitro study, we can get a whole lot of information. We can also easily compare results from warm water species such as sea bass from the Mediterranean with cold water species such as salmon from Norway", said Moyano.