Potential of using unconventional animal protein ingredients to replace fish meal in Nile tilapia diets

The study was performed to evaluate the partial replacement of fish meal by unconventional animal protein ingredients; feather meal [FM] and/or rabbit manure [RM] in Nile tilapia diets. Fish were fed for 15 weeks on six isonitrogenous and isocaloric experimental diets. The control group diet contained fish meal, whereas the other five groups received diets in which fish meal was partially replaced by incorporation of [7.5-15%] FM or [7.5-15%] RM or [7.5 and 7.5%] FM and RM respectively. Incorporation of FM at both levels [7.5-15%] in Nile tilapia diets decreased body weight gain, feed intake and reduced the digestibility of DM and CP. RM at levels of [7.5-15]% increased fish body weight gain, feed intake, protein intake and improved digestibility of DM and CP. Feed conversion ratio [FCR], specific growth rate [SGR], protein intake and protein efficiency ratio [PER] were decreased by incorporation of 7.5% FM in fish diet. Meanwhile 7.5% RM resulted in an increase of FCR and improve PCR, while 15% RM increased SGR. A combination of 7.5% FM and 7.5%RM achieved' best DM and CP retention and highest CP content in body composition. The lowest nutrient retention, CP content of fish body and dressing% were recorded in groups fed FM containing diets. Conclusively, the present results suggested that FM and RM could be included safely in Nile tilapia diets to reduce feed cost. Partial replacement of fish meal by incorporation of RM in the diet of Nile tilapia achieved the best growth performance

Impact of fish meal replacement by uncounentional ingradients on performance of Nile telepia

The effect of partial or total replacing fish meal with dried rumen content [RC] and or Azolla meal [AM] in diets of Nile tilapia of initial weight [7.35g +/- 0.23] was investigated in 12-week experiment. Eight experimental diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous and isocaloric. Beside the basal diet, each of RC and AM were incorporated at levels of 5, 10 and 15%. A combination of 5% RC and 5% AM [RC-AM] was served to replace 10% fish meal. The control group achieved the significant highest final body weight gain, protein efficiency and food conversion ratio followed by the group fed 10% RC. Azolla incorporation failed to improve any of the performance parameters. The group fed 15% AM was the worth regarding performance parameters, CP and EE retention of final body composition and dietary CP digestibility. The group fed a combination of 5% RC and 5% AM sustained intermediate pattern among treated groups with improved in FCR [4.05]. The results indicate some benefits from replacing dietary 10% fish meal with either 10% RC or a combination of RC-AM on Nile tilapia performance as well as reducing feed cost