Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid 'sparing' in barramundi

What is it about?

Barramundi can tolerate a range of different alternative oils in their diet. We investigated the effect of feeding diets with predominantly saturated or monounsaturated oils to barramundi. The results showed that these diets did not affect the fish growth and were efficiently utilised, effectively 'sparing' the more desirable omega-3 fatty acids from oxidation.

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Why is it important?

This work is important as it demonstrates that not only the barramundi can tolerate higher than usual levels of either fatty acid class tested but they are efficient at sparing the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids from oxidation. However, the more saturated oils were less digestible so consideration to the ratio of each class should be an important factor.