Modelling the individual growth of rainbow trout

Abstract

Aquaculture represents a key sector to achieve future food security because of its ability to produce animal proteins, that are needed for human diet. Today, aquaculture accounts for 53% of global fish production, excluding non-food uses. The role of aquaculture will even be enhanced in the future, considering that human population will reach 9 billion of people before 2050 and by taking into consideration the change of diet habits of developing countries, leading to a larger consumption of animal proteins, especially those from fish. Italian fish production is dominated by rainbow trout, which is farmed in raceways, mainly, located in the mountain region of the northeast part of Italy, such as: Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto and Trentino Alto Adige. In this work, a bioenergetic model was developed to simulate the individual growth of rainbow trout during a grow-out phase, in relation to water temperature, quality and quantity of feed. The growth was estimated by using an energy budget, which will include anabolism and catabolism and several physiological parameters, that have been selected based on the available literature or that have been calibrated. The calibration of these parameters has been made by comparing the results of the model simulation with experimental data, provided by a fish farmer, located in the province of Trento. Also, an uncertainty analysis was conducted to estimate the confidence level of these parameters.