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Title: Use of plant protein sources in crustacean diets

Author
item VENERO, JESUS - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item DAVIS, D. ALLEN - AUBURN UNIVERSITY
item Lim, Chhorn

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/15/2007
Publication Date: 2/25/2008
Citation: Venero, J.A., Davis, D., Lim, C.E. 2008. Use of plant protein sources in crustacean diets. In: Lim. C.E., Webster, C.D., and Lee C.S., editors. Alternative Protein Sources in Aquaculture Diets. New York: NY. Haworth Press. p. 163-203.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: World production of crustaceans has experienced a steady expansion that is expected to continue as world population increases and demand for quality sea food continues to rise. Paralleling the growth of industry has been an expansion in feed production, which has been primarily dominated by marine shrimp feeds. Current commercial shrimp feeds often contain approximately 25% fish meal. In 2000, it was estimated that close to 372,000 MT of fish meal was used in the manufacture of shrimp diets accounting for 17.6% of fish meal used for agriculture feed production worldwide. In addition to fish meal, other marine meals, such as krill, shrimp, squid and scallop waste are often included as they are considered as excellent source of high quality proteins, highly unsaturated fatty acids, mineral and attractants. However, the demand of fish meal for crustacean feeds is subjected to competition from other sectors of the agriculture industry. Also the supply, quality, and prices suffer great fluctuations from year to year due to market and environmental constraints like “El Nino” phenomenon. However, these meals are often found in limited supply and thus demand high price. From a nutritional stand point, fish meal and most of the marine meals can be replaced either singularly or in combination with other plant protein sources. The use of terrestrial products, such as plant meals, as the main sources of proteins, has been encouraged. Among different sources of vegetables proteins, soybean meal have been more extensively used as replacement of marine protein. Other sources of plant proteins, such as cottonseed meal, peanut meal, canola meal, distillers grain with solubles, and some legume meals have been included and evaluated. Usually the use of plant proteins shows some limitation due to deficiency or imbalance of essential amino acids, presence of anti-nutritional factors or toxins, and decreased palatability, among others. Many of these limitations have been overcome by the use of proper combinations of different types of plant proteins to balance the amino acid profile, by developing specific processing procedures to inactivate or reduce the level of anti-nutritional factors, or by limiting their inclusion in the diet to a level that does not affect the animals. In this chapter we will present and discuss up-to-date information on published research on the use of plant proteins in crustacean feeds, as partial or total replacement of fish meal and other marine products.