Arachidonic acid in aquaculture feeds: current status and future opportunities

The importance of arachidonic acid (20:4n - 6, ARA) in fish nutrition has tended to be overlooked in preference to eicosapentaenoic (20:5n - 3, EPA) and docosahexaenoic acids (22:6n - 3, DHA), probably due to the predominance of the latter two HUFA in fish tissues. However, despite the abundance of EPA and DHA in fish tissues, the importance of ARA as the primary eicosanoid precursor has been recognised for some time. Only very recently has the relative importance of ARA been given due acknowledgement and already the potential benefits to fish physiology and biochemistry of optimising the ARA nutrition of fish are becoming clear. In the coming decade, the role of dietary ARA should be the focus of considerably more research activity than has occurred to date. The results will undoubtedly emphasise why this ubiquitous HUFA cannot be underestimated in fish nutrition. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.