Inclusion of a commercial poultry by-product meal as a protein replacement of ®sh meal in practical diets for African cat®sh Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1822)

Journal Article

2001

Published in: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal

Abdel-Warith, A A . 2001

This study examined the full and partial replacement
of the ®sh meal component of practical
diets with commercial poultry by-product meal
(PBM) for juvenile African cat®sh Clarias gariepinus
(Burchell 1822). Six test diet formulations were
based on a low temperature Norwegian ®sh meal
(LT94) as the reference protein source. Dietary
inclusion levels of PBM at 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%
and 100% substitution of total protein content
were compared with the ®sh meal-based control
diet (100% ®sh meal). All diets were iso-nitrogenous
and isocaloric in gross terms. The results
showed that there were signi®cant differences
(P < 0.05) between the ®nal average weights of
®sh at the end of a 10-week feeding trial. Growth
performance, feed intake, feed conversion ratio,
protein ef®ciency ratio and speci®c growth rate
were all depressed for cat®sh fed the highest levels
of PBM diets compared with the ®sh meal group.
It was inferred that amino acid pro®le and
digestibility of protein were mainly responsible
for these effects, together with reduced palatability.
PBM may successfully replace up to 40% of
the protein component in practical feeds for this
species. Histological examination of liver tissue
showed alterations in hepatic structure of those
®sh fed diets with higher levels of PBM.

• Publication Work Type: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
• Volume Number: 32
• Issue Number: 1
• Magazine \ Newspaper: Aquaculture Research
• Pages: 296-305