Evaluation of fish meal analogue as partial fish meal replacement in the diet of growing Japanese eel Anguilla japonica

• Published in: Animal feed science and technology Vol. 247; pp. 41 - 52
• Main Authors: Damusaru, Jim Hyacinth, Moniruzzaman, Mohammad, Park, Youngjin, Seong, Minji, Jung, Joo-Young, Kim, Dae-Jung, Bai, Sungchul C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.01.2019
• Subjects: Broken-line regression; Fish meal analogue; Hematology; Histology; Innate immune response; Japanese eel; Japanese eel; Fish meal analogue; Histology; Hematology; Innate immune response; Broken-line regression
• ISSN: 0377-8401; 1873-2216
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2018.10.018

•Fish meal analogue (FMA) as fish meal replacer in growing Japanese eel is evaluated.•FMA could replace up to 20% of FM without impairing the growth performance of fish.•Hematology and histological integrity followed the same trend of growth performance..•Superoxide dismutase and lysozyme levels were not affected by the dietary treatments.•Dietary FM replacement level with FMA could be 15.39% based on broken-line analysis. We evaluated the dietary fish meal analogue as a fish meal replacer based on growth, hematology, non-specific immune responses and intestinal integrity in growing Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica. Five experimental diets contained the animal protein sources as 100% FM (FMA0) as control, 90% FM + 10% FMA (FMA10), 80% FM + 20% FMA (FMA20), 70% FM + 30% FMA (FMA30) and 60% FM + 40% FMA (FMA40). Each group of 13 fish with an average initial body weight of 119.60 ± 0.97 g (mean ± SD) were randomly distributed into 15 tanks (250-L each) in triplicates and fish were fed twice a day with one of the 5 experimental diets for 10 weeks. At the end of the feeding trial, weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed intake (FI) and feed efficiency (FE) of fish fed the FMA0, FMA10, and FMA20 diets were significantly higher than those of fish fed the FMA30 and FMA40 diets. Whole body proximate composition and amino acids profile of fish were not affected by dietary treatments. Broken-line regression analysis indicates the optimum dietary FMA replacement level could be 15.39%. Hemato-biochemical parameters such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and triglycerides (TG) were higher in fish fed the FMA30 and FMA40 diets than those of fish fed the FMA0, FMA10, and FMA20 diets. Non-specific immune responses in terms of serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) and lysozyme activities were unaffected among fish fed the diets. Distal intestinal histology of fish fed the FMA30 and FMA40 diets showed abnormal villi structural arrangements (fold breaks, dilation, and dwarf villi) compared to those of fish fed the FMA0, FMA10, and FMA20 diets. Therefore, the results indicated that the optimum level of dietary FMA could fall between 15.39% and 20% in growing Japanese eel.