Project number: 2007-221
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $353,279.00
Principal Investigator: Kathy Schuller
Organisation: Flinders University
Project start/end date: 13 Jul 2007 - 30 Jun 2010
Contact:
FRDC

Need

The vast majority of the Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) farmed in South Australia is sold fresh for sashimi production in Japan. Premium prices are obtained for sashimi grade tuna with a high fat content. Unfortunately, fatty fish tissues with their high polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content are prone to oxidation. This results in poor flesh quality, reduced shelf life and significant trimming of the tuna carcass at the market.

FRDC Project No. 2004/209 investigated the impact of dietary supplements on the flesh quality of farmed SBT. Specifically, it investigated the impact of the dietary antioxidants vitamins C and E and the mineral selenium. Project No. 2004/209 showed that these supplements can extend the shelf life of muscle samples taken from farmed SBT fed diets containing higher than normal concentrations of the antioxidants.

Although Project No. 2004/209 has been very successful, performing diet trials with live SBT is expensive and logistically difficult. It is also time-consuming and the statistical power of the experiments is limited by the fact that it is economically unfeasible to have multiple replicate sea-cages for each dietary treatment. As a result of these constraints, experiments must be repeated over several years to obtain statistically valid results.

Recently, we produced the world’s first SBT cell line and to our knowledge the first cell line for any tuna species. The cell line has the potential to reduce the number of experiments with live SBT and to greatly increase the number of dietary supplements that can be screened in a given period of time. With the cell line, it takes only one week to screen 24 different supplements with 3-4 replicates of each. This compares with years for similar experiments with live SBT.

This project will evaluate the cell line as a platform for testing dietary antioxidant supplements for SBT.

Objectives

1. To adapt existing assays for antioxidant potency from mammalian cell culture systems for use with primary fish cell cultures and immortal fish cell lines.
2. To use the adapted assays with primary fish cell cultures and immortal fish cell lines to screen a broad range of concentrations and combinations of traditional and novel antioxidants for their ability to inhibit lipid oxidation
3. To rank the antioxidants with respect to their antioxidant potency relative to vitamin E, the ‘industry standard’ antioxidant
4. To quantify how the antioxidant concentrations that are effective in primary fish cell cultures and immortal fish cell lines relate to the antioxidant concentrations that need to be added to aquafeeds
5. To undertake a cost benefit analysis of the various antioxidants and antioxidant combinations with respect to their eventual incorporation into feeds
6. To investigate the impact of dietary antioxidants on cellular antioxidants and antioxidant enzymes in primary fish cell cultures and immortal fish cell lines
7. To recommend the best concentrations and combinations of antioxidants to be added to southern bluefin tuna and yellowtail kingfish feeds to maximize fish health and flesh quality

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-646-54976-7
Author: Kathryn Schuller

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