In vivo and in vitro protein digestibility and growth performance of animal and no‐conventional plant ingredients for river prawn Macrobrachium americanum (Caridea: Palaemonidae)

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of non-traditional plant and animal protein for river prawn M. americanum on in vivo versus in vitro digestibility in addition to growth performance. In this study, ten ingredients were used: coconut meal, jackfruit meal, soybean meal, poultry by-product meal, squid meal and fish meal. In vivo studies were conducted using the zeolite marker method, whereas in vitro digestibility was determined by the pH-stat method using river prawn hepatopancreas enzymes. According to the findings, river prawns digest animals more efficiently than plant ingredients, with squid and fish meal showing a tendency of higher values. Fish meal (53.66%), squid meal (48.52%) and jackfruit meal (42.21%) were found to have a digestibility greater than 40% in in vivo and in vitro methods, thus suggesting that they are the best ingredients used in this study. This also validates their inclusion in practical diets. The correlation of digestibility of in vivo and in vitro was low (R2 = .6749). The highest daily weight gain was recorded in the diets containing jackfruit, coconut and squid. Given that the potential of no-conventional plant ingredients available regionally was significantly higher, this underscores the need to conduct further research to validate their inclusion in practical diets.