Abstract
The study aimed to investigate the effects of formic acid inclusion in abalone diets, which contained ingredients produced from fish processing by-products, and to quantify effects on production performance. Four diets (a commercial reference and iso-nutrient diets containing fish silage oil, unprocessed rainbow trout viscera or shrimp protein hydrolysate) were evaluated both with and without addition of 2 g kg−1 dietary formic acid, thus yielding a total of eight treatments, in feeding trials with cultured South African abalone Haliotis midae. Results indicated that inclusion of unprocessed rainbow trout viscera without formic acid decreased production performance of experimental animals, as evidenced by significantly decreased final animal weight and daily weight gain, and significantly increased feed conversion ratio compared to the iso-nutrient control. The decreased production performance was attributed to decreased feed water stability of the diet incorporating untreated trout viscera. Dietary formic acid supplementation partially mitigated the negative impacts of viscera inclusion on production performance of the experimental animals, as seen in significantly higher final animal weight and daily weight gain, and lower feed conversion ratio when compared to non-formic acid-supplemented, viscera-containing diet. However, no beneficial effects on production performance or water stability were found upon formic acid inclusion in diets not containing trout viscera. In conclusion, dietary formic acid can partially mitigate negative impacts on production performance when unprocessed trout viscera are included in formulated abalone diets by improving feed water stability, but the exact mechanism by which this is achieved was not established.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
