Complete replacement of fish meal by porcine and poultry by-product meals in practical diets for fingerling Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus: digestibility and growth performance

The apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) of poultry by-product meal-pet food grade (PBM) and porcine meal (PM) were determined for fingerling male Nile tilapia. ADC for protein were 98.1% and 92.3% in PBM and PM, and 87.1% and 79.4% for energy. PBM and PM were then used as complete replacements for fish meal (FM) in practical diets for Nile tilapia formulated to contain equal digestible protein (300 g kg⁻¹) and energy (16.74 MJ per 100 g) on an as-fed basis. Fingerlings (mean initial weight ±SD, 9.5 ± 0.015 g) were fed for 8 weeks on one of the four diets: FM-, PBM- or PM-based and a commercial feed. The ADC for protein in control and PBM diets (89.7% and 87.9%) were significantly higher than those for the control diet (81.96%). Growth performance and feed utilization were statistically similar between fish fed control and PBM diets, whereas the PM diet exhibited significantly lower performance compared with the control. However, the PM diet showed similar results to the commercial reference diet. Survival and feed conversion ratio were not significantly influenced by replacement of FM with either PBM or PM. The results indicated that PBM and PM can effectively replace FM in practical diets for fingerling Nile tilapia.