ASSESSMENT OF A “FUTURE PRACTICAL” DIET ON GUT MICROBIOTA OF GENETICALLY SELECTED OR NOT SELECTED STRAIN OF EUROPEAN SEA BASS (Dicentrarchus labrax)

The present study aimed to investigate the benefits of using a strain of European sea bass selected for growth in a nutritional challenge with a “future” practical dietary formulation completely devoid of fish oil (FO) and with low percentage of fishmeal (FM).Briefly, two sea bass strains, one genetically selected for growth (GS), and the other one not selected (NGS) were fed with two experimental diets: a control diet (A) mimicking a commercial diet based on low FM (20%) and FO (9%), and a “future” diet (B) completely devoid of FO and with low percentage of FM (10%). Fish were fed for nine months in triplicate (3 tanks/diet/genotype). At the beginning (T0) and at the end of feeding trial,two fish per tank were sampled (6 fish/diet/genotype) and the entire intestine was aseptically removed and used for microbiota analysis.