Soybean Meal Use by Shrimp

Research was reported that examined the potential use of commercial steam-processed feather meal and feathers enzymatically hydrolyzed for 60 or 120 minutes as substitutes for fish meal in diets of the Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) juveniles. The three processed feather ingredients were extruded with soybean meal in a 1:1 ratio. Performance of diets formulated to contain nine or eighteen percent enzymatically hydrolyzed feathers and soybean meal were compared to a diet containing 13.7 percent steam-processed feather meal and to a diet containing 18.4 percent fish meal with no feather ingredients. The weight gains of the juvenile shrimp fed the hydrolyzed feathers and soybean meal diets did not differ from the shrimp fed the fish meal control diet. The performance of the shrimp fed the steam-processed feather meal and soybean meal diet gained less weight. In the second experiment the enzymatic hydrolyzed feathers were extruded in a 2:1 ratio with soybean meal and included in the diet at 20 percent. These diets were compared to a control diet with 17.8% fish meal in a feeding study conducted in a rearing pond. Growth, feed conversion, diet digestibility and protein efficiency ratios were similar for various treatments during the 30-day study. The researchers concluded that white shrimp may be fed a practical diet containing 20% enzymatically-hydrolyzed feathers and soybean meal extruded in a 2:1 ratio without altering growth or feed conversion. This processed feather-soybean meal feed ingredient reduced the fish meal needed in the feed by about 55 percent.

Mendoza, R. and co-workers. 2001. Fish meal replacement with feather-enzymatic hydrolyzates co-extruded with soya-bean meal in practical diets for the Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei).