THE PARTIAL AND TOTAL REPLACEMENT OF FISH MEAL BY POULTRY BY-PRODUCT MEAL IN DIETS FOR
AFRICAN CATFISH (CLARIAS GARIEPINUS)

Seden, M.E.A. and Mohammad H. Ahmad

Department of Fish Nutrition, Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research, Agricultural Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt.

Received 2/ 5/ 2011 Accepted 29/ 5/ 2011

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the use of poultry by-product meal (PBM) in practical diets for African catfish, Clarias gariepinus. Six diets were formulated in which PBM replaced 0.0 (control), 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100% of the protein supplied by herring fish meal (HFM). All diets are isonitrogenous (35.0 % crude protein) and isolipidic (8.0% crude lipid). In this study, each treatment was represented by three 100-L aquaria and each aquarium was stocked by 10 fish (6.1±0.1 g). The experimental diets were provided at a rate of 4 % of fish live body weight twice a day, 6 days a week for 12 weeks .The obtained Results demonstrated that PBM had good potential as a complete substitute of the protein supplied by HFM for African catfish. No significant changes were observed in growth performance, feed conversion, and protein utilization compared to fish fed the control diet (100% HFM–based diet). The partial or complete replacement of PBM protein for HFM–protein in the diets did not affect fish proximate composition (dry mater, crude protein, fat, or ash) compared to the control group.
Moreover, the economic evaluation showed that a diet containing 100% PBM reduced the feed cost by 28.52%. In conclusion, this study clearly indicates that PBM can serve as a complete replacement for fish meal in cat fish diets.

Keywords: Poultry by-product meal, African catfish, growth performance, feed utilization, body composition, economic evaluation.