Effect of dietary chicken gut meal levels on growth performance, plasma biochemical parameters, digestive ability and fillet quality of Cyprinus carpio

Abstract

An eight-week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of chicken gut meal (CGM) in experimental diet on growth performance, plasma biochemical parameters, digestive enzymes activity, intestinal morphologic, muscle composition, and fillet quality of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) (initial body weight: 57.34 ± 0.13 g). Experimental fish were fed with experimental diets containing CGM at 0% (CGM 0 group), 5% (CGM 5% group), 10% (CGM 10% group), 15% (CGM 15% group), and 100% (CGM 100% group) levels, respectively. The results revealed that CGM significantly improved final body weight (FBW), weight gain rate (WGR), specific growth rate (SGR), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P < 0.05) of experimental fish. Plasma GH and IGF-I concentrations in the CGM 15% group were substantially higher than in the other groups (P < 0.05). CGM 15% group showed the highest FBW, WG, SGR, and lowest FCR (P < 0.05) of all treatments. Except for plasma total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), and globulin (GLB) contents, the plasma biochemical parameters were significantly improved (P < 0.05). Pepsin (PEP), amylase (AMS), and lipase (LPS) activities were significantly higher in CGM 10%, CGM 15%, and CGM 100% groups compared to the control group and reached a maximum in the CGM 15% group (P < 0.05). Diet supplementation with CGM significantly increased midgut villi height (VH), villi width (VW), and muscle layer thickness (MT) in common carp. The inclusion of dietary CGM to the diet could improve the crude protein and crude lipid content of common carp muscle, as well as influence fillet quality by increasing chewiness. In conclusion, the optimum inclusion of CGM to the diet is 15%, which can considerably improve growth performance, plasma biochemical parameters, digestive activity, and fillet quality of common carp.