Hydrolyzed Tuna Meat By-Product Supplement for Juvenile Red Sea Bream, Pagrus major, and its Effect on Growth, Enzyme Activity, Plasma Parameters, and Apparent Nutrient Digestibility

Abstract

A growth experiment was conducted on juvenile red sea bream, Pagrus major to investigate the effect of the inclusion in fish diets, of tuna meat by-product hydrolysate which was processed through enzymatic hydrolysis using a commercially available enzyme, derived from Bacillus subtilis. Six experimental diets were formulated in the experiment. Three diets contained 50, 150 and 250 g/kg of TPM-H (tuna meat by-product hydrolysate), and two diets with the unprocessed TPM (tuna meat by-product) at an inclusion level of 50 and 250 g/kg. A control diet was formulated without any addition of the test ingredients. Treatment diets were fed ad libitum to juvenile fish with an initial average body weight of 0.81 ±0.13 g for 56 days. Results of the feeding trial suggest that the inclusion of TPM-H at 250 g/kg in fish diets improved body weight gain rate (3271.58%), feed intake (24.55 g/fish/56 days) and feed conversion efficiency (1.12) of the fish. Apparent nutrient digestibility of hydrolyzed tuna meat by-product improved compared to the unhydrolyzed ingredient. These results suggest that TPM processed as hydrolysates can be efficiently utilized by fish.