Efficacy of Poultry By-product Meal as an Effective Alternative to Fish Meal in Aquaculture Feed for Milkfish Chanos chanos

Abstract

We verified the efficiency of poultry by-product meal (PBM) as a substitute for fish meal (FM) in feed for juvenile milkfish (Chanos chanos). Juveniles (mean 48.0 g) were fed for 12 weeks with two experimental feeds containing different levels of PBM (8.0% and 12%), FM (10% and 5.0%), and cod liver oil (fish oil or FO, 4.0% and 3.8%). A feed without PBM having higher levels of FM and FO (20% and 4.5%, respectively) was used as control. Weight gain, specific growth rate, and feed conversion ratio were not significantly affected by the levels of dietary PBM. In addition, no significant differences were detected among the dietary groups in plasma triglyceride, total cholesterol, phospholipid, glucose, or total protein concentrations. Furthermore, crude protein, crude fat, moisture, and ash contents in the whole body, liver, and dorsal muscle were not significantly influenced by the dietary treatments. The results of organoleptic examinations that included tests of smell, flavor, and texture were almost the same among the dietary groups. These results indicated that PBM is the applicable substitute for FM, with performance of the high PBM feed (PBM-FM-FO = 12%-5.0%-3.8%) being comparable to that of the control feed.