New application of farmed blue mussels: Mussel meal (39089)

The aim of this project was to create knowledge and develop the use of mussels as feed supplement for poultry and pigs. Specifically, the objective was to optimize the rearing of mussels, optimize the process and examine the biological basis for the use of mussels as feed supplement for poultry and pigs.
The results show that crude protein content and fatty acid content in mussel meal was at 57 % and 15 %, whereas the silage had a content of 17 % and 5 %. The analyzes showed a high proportion of pure protein and mussel amino acid composition was close to the values found in fish meal.

Experiments on pigs showed that there was no problem getting the pigs to eat the feed mixes with mussels and the digestibility of crude protein and amino acids was higher than for the control feed mixture of fish protein. Feed mixed with mussel silage gave the best digestibility. Overall experiments show that there is a clear potential for mussels as a protein source especially for pigs.

This project was coordinated by DTU Aqua and funded by the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and Vækstforum Region Nordjylland.

Research area: Shellfish and Seaweed
Research area: Coastal Ecology