2008 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416) The objective of this research is to develop and test plant-based trout feeds that reduce or eliminate the use of fish meal and fish oil, while maintaining superior fish performance. 1b.Approach (from AD-416) Potential alternate ingredients will be selected based upon nutrient and anti-nutrient profiles. Special emphasis will be selected based upon barley and oat cultivars, but any ingredient that has favorable profiles will be considered. Some marine oils and proteins maybe evaluated at low inclusion levels to enhance feed palatability and the final product fatty acid profile. Practical feed formulations, based on plant-derived will be used to evaluat vitamin premix formulations, and all feeds will be produced using manufacturing technology appropriate for that particular type of feed. Feeds for rapidly growing juvenile fish will be produced using cooking extrusion. Traditional methods, including growth performance and tissue saturation levels, will be used to determine optimal levels of micro-nutrients along with the development and evaluation of molecular expression assays. Documents SCA with U of Idaho-Hagerman. Formerly 5366-21310-002-04S (1/05). 3.Progress Report Several feeding trials have been conducted to further the development of plant based feeds for rainbow trout and determine if strain differences can be exploited. A feeding trial was conducted to determine if cholesterol found in fish meal and fish oil is an important nutrient to consider when removing fish meal from the diet. The trial has been conducted and laboratory analyses are underway. Another trial is being conducted with 20 different trout families to evaluate the effect of feeding different oil source on fatty acid metabolism. The fish have been fed the experimental diets for 12 weeks and are scheduled to remain in the experiment for another 4 weeks. Activities of the collaborators were monitored using a variety of communication methods. Monthly site visits were made by the ADODR to Hagerman and meetings were held to plan new experiments and discuss results from completed experiments. Telephone calls and emails were also used to communicate in-between visits.