Poultry By-Product Meals
October 5th, 2008 by g.reutensAn article posted on the NACA website contained research pertaining to the use of poultry by-products for groupers in South-East Asia.
http://www.enaca.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1775
Grouper farming is heavily dependent on trash fish feeding and due to the increased demand for trash fish, stock levels are declining.
In order to facilitate and sustain the South-Eastern aquaculture industry farmers are employing commercially-formulated feeds, based on fish meal as the primary dietary protein source.
Throughout the past quarter of the century total levels of global fish meal production have remained relatively consistent, and due to limitations in supply in concert with increased demand this has resulted in inflated fish meal costs (refer to the link below).
As a result, finding alternative and sustainable protein sources to fish meal is imperative in the culture of such carnivorous fish species.
http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/472/fishmeal-market-report-june-2008
Poultry by-product meals (PBM) are considered to be one alternative to fish meal. PBM’s are produced globally and have high potential for fish diets due to high protein contents, low price and ease of digestion in several fish species.
The feeding trial compared PBM sources with a fish meal-based diet and analysed the effects on growth, feed efficiency, amino-acid composition and digestibility.
Growth and feed utilisation rates were comparable between the two groups. However, differences in amino-acid compositions and nutrient digestibility were observed.
The results suggest that over half the protein in formulated diets can be provided by PBM sources however further investigation is necessary. While the results look promising further research is also needed to highlight the social and economic implications involved in using PBM’s in the aquaculture industry.
Tags: feed
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October 12th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Interesting article.
I would say the same could be be applied with fish by products at the moment. Surely there would be considerable by products when fish are processed.
Could there be an enterprise associated with buying back these by products from fish processors and turning that into fish meal?