Shea Caterpillar Flour in Tilapia Feed: Impact on Growth Performance
Abstract
With the aim of seeking alternatives to the expensive use of fish meal in fish feed, a study was carried out on the incorporation of shea caterpillar meal (Cirina butyrospermi) into the diet of Oreochromis niloticus. Three diets with progressive incorporation rates of 15% (A15), 20% (A20) and 25% (A25) of C. butyrospermi meal were prepared from a local feed based on agricultural by-products and compared with a control diet (AT) without animal meal. Tilapia larvae with a mean initial weight of 4± 0.05 g were reared in duplicate basins at a stocking density of 100 fry per m3. The fish were fed 4 times a day with a ration of 5% of their total biomass from the start to the end of the experiment. After 90 days of rearing, the best feed conversion and final weight (1.50 ± 0.14; 37.10± 2.25 g, respectively) were obtained with diet A20, followed by diet A15 (1.62 ± 0.08; 35.20± 2.86 g) and A25 (1.74 ± 0.12; 33.03± 3.44 g). The lowest daily growth (0.33± 0.03 g/day) and the highest feed conversion index (1.99± 0.12) were recorded with the AT diet. At the end of the experiment, survival rates were greater than or equal to 92.86%. At the end of this study, shea caterpillar meal can be incorporated into tilapia feed and considered a good protein source.
Introduction
To date, over 80% of global fish production depends on exogenous feed in the form of supplements to feed from the farming environment (FAO, 2018). Several investigations have been carried out in the field of feed, contributing to the rapid expansion and spectacular development of aquaculture worldwide (Kolditz, 2008; FAO, 2018). Against this backdrop, we are witnessing an intensification of fish farming, with widespread and significant use of artificial feeds (Gaye-Siessegger et al., 2005). These highperformance feeds, which provide fish with a complete diet, are produced in developed countries. However, in developing countries, the difficulty lies in acquiring suitable exogenous feeds for feeding fish, especially at juvenile stages (Hung et al., 2001; Coulibaly et al., 2007; Pangni et al., 2008).
These exogenous feeds are considered to be very expensive and, above all, difficult to access, which hampers the expansion of the fisheries sector (Barrows and Hardy, 2001).
The high cost of these feeds is most often due to the use of fishmeal as a protein source. Indeed, the extensive use of fishmeal in feeds is at the root of this high cost (Nguyen et al., 2009; Hardy, 2010). These authors also point out that this input is becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, representing a major limiting factor to aquaculture developments. Faced with this situation, the use of adapted local feeds is necessary to maximize feed conversion efficiency and growth (Guzel and Arvas, 2011).
In Côte d'Ivoire, for example, Oreochromis niloticus production faces several obstacles. Among these obstacles are (i) the low nutritional quality of local feed (ii) the low availability of quality imported feed (iii) the cost of imported feed deemed high by stakeholders, and above all (iv) the lack of fry (MIRAH, 2014, PREPICO, 2019). Yet it has been reported by several authors (Richter et al., 2003; Liebert and Portz, 2005; Zhao et al., 2010) that in tilapia, combining several agricultural by-products with insect meal in feed formulas can reduce production costs while improving fish growth. However, in Côte d'Ivoire, there is a wide range of agricultural by-products that have already been tested in fish feeds (Nguyen et al., 2009; Zhao et al., 2010; Bamba et al., 2018). These include cottonseed and soybean meal, and rice and wheat bran. These raw materials are found in abundant quantities in Côte d'Ivoire (Sangare et al., 2009; FAO, 2014). For all these aforementioned reasons, we chose to use compound feeds based on agricultural by-products and shea caterpillar (C. butyrospermi) meal in the diet of pond-reared fry. With this in mind, the general objective of this study was to test the use of shea caterpillar meal (C. butyrospermi) combined with local agricultural by-products in the diets of tilapia Oreochromis niloticus "Brazil strain" fry.
Source : Shea Caterpillar Flour in Tilapia Feed: Impact on Growth Performance | InformativeBD
