Abstract
The study was undertaken to determine the nutritive value as protein source in carp diet of white fish meal, meat meal, meat & bone meal, and corn gluten meal. Four feeding trials were conducted using juvenile carp with body weight ranging from 3 to 5g by maintaining them on diets in which the ingredients were incorporated as sole protein source at different levels. Apparent digestibility, PER, NPU, and BV were determined.
The apparent protein digestibilities were 54% for meat & bone meal, 87% for white fish meal meal and 95% for corn gluten meal. The values for PER, NPU, and BV at various protein levels were highest in white fish meal and lowest in corn gluten meal. These values of meat meal were higher than those obtained with meat & bone meal, excluding BV that was higher in meat & bone meal than meat meal because of the lower protein digestibility value. The low values of protein utilization of meat meal, meat & bone meal, and corn gluten meal are attributed to their poor amino acid profiles.
