Replacement of Menhaden Fish Meal by Poultry By‐Product Meal in the Diet of Juvenile Red Porgy

Abstract

AbstractPoultry by‐product meal (PBM) was tested as a substitute for fish meal (FM) in the diet of juvenile Red Porgy Pagrus pagrus. Eight diets (50% crude protein, 13% crude lipid) were formulated to replace FM protein with PBM protein at 0 (control), 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70%. Juvenile Red Porgy were fed the diets twice daily to apparent satiation for 8 weeks. Fish were held in 75‐L rectangular tanks with 15 fish/tank using a recirculating seawater (34 g/L) system maintained at 22°C. No significant differences in body weight gain (BWG; 318–387%), final weight (17.4–20.4 g), specific growth rate (2.55–2.77% per day), feed conversion ratio (0.85–1.18), protein efficiency ratio (0.45–0.61), or survival (84–98%) were observed among fish fed diets replacing 0–70% of FM protein with PBM protein. After the feeding trial, the survival, growth, feed utilization, fish whole‐body protein, lipid, docosahexaenoic acid content, and apparent digestibility of protein were not significantly different for fish fed diets with up to 70% of FM protein replaced by PBM compared to a 100% FM‐protein‐based control diet. Broken‐line regression analysis with BWG indicated that PBM protein can replace FM protein in Red Porgy diets at levels as high as 54.0% with no reduction in fish growth performance. Poultry by‐product meal is a cheaper and more sustainable ingredient than FM and is an excellent alternative protein source for Red Porgy.