Safety and efficacy of Panaferd-AX (red carotenoid-rich bacterium
Paracoccus carotinifaciens) as feed additive for salmon and trout1
Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed
(Question No EFSA-Q-2006-173)
Adopted on 18 September 2007
PANEL MEMBERS
Georges Bories, Paul Brantom, Joaquim Brufau de Barberà, Andrew Chesson, Pier Sandro Cocconcelli, Bogdan Debski, Noël Dierick, Anders Franklin, Jürgen Gropp, Ingrid Halle, Christer Hogstrand, Joop de Knecht, Lubomir Leng, Anne-Katrine Lundebye Haldorsen, Alberto Mantovani, Miklós Mézes, Carlo Nebbia, Walter Rambeck, Guido Rychen, Atte von Wright and Pieter Wester
SUMMARY
Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the safety and efficacy of Panaferd-AX. The product is a feed additive consisting of dried sterilised cells of a red carotenoid-rich bacterium (Paracoccus carotinifaciens) intended to provide farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) with a source
of astaxanthin which confers the characteristic red colour to the flesh. Panaferd-AX contains around 4 % total red carotenoids, predominantly astaxanthin (2.2 %), adonirubin (1.3 %) and
canthaxanthin (0.4 %).
In salmon and rainbow trout astaxanthin, deposition in flesh from Panaferd-AX was less efficient than that from synthetic astaxanthin. However, equal astaxanthin doses from both sources resulted in a comparable flesh pigmentation in the dose range of 20 to 100 mg astaxanthin kg-1 feed, due to the contribution of the other red carotenoids, mainly adonirubin and canthaxanthin, which are also demonstrated to be deposited in fish flesh. The technological
and organoleptic properties of flesh from Panaferd-AX-treated fish were not different from those treated with synthetic astaxanthin.
Panaferd-AX, at dietary incorporation rate of 12.5-fold greater than the proposed maximum incorporation rate (0.4 %) is safe for salmonids (trout and salmon). Paracoccus carotinifaciens is not a known pathogen, and no other concerns have been identified either in the limited literature available or in the data submitted in the dossier.
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