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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #334115
Research Project: Evaluating Nutritional Requirements, Identifying Alternative Ingredients and Improving the Production Environment for Hybrid and Channel Catfish Production

Location: Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit

Title: Evaluation of various combinations of alternative protein feedstuffs to replace soybean meal in diets for pond-raised channel catfish

Author
item MENGHE, LI - Mississippi State University
item LUCAS, PENELOPE - Mississippi State University
item Bosworth, Brian

Submitted to: North American Journal of Aquaculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/18/2016
Publication Date: 4/1/2017
Citation: Menghe, L.H., Lucas, P.M., Bosworth, B.G. 2017. Evaluation of various combinations of alternative protein feedstuffs to replace soybean meal in diets for pond-raised channel catfish. North American Journal of Aquaculture. 79(2):163-167.

Interpretive Summary: Catfish farming represents the largest aquaculture industry in the U.S and feed represents the major cost associated with production of catfish. Soybean meal is the main protein source in catfish diets and reducing feed costs by finding less expensive protein sources would reduce production costs. A study was conducted in earthen ponds to compare production and processing traits of catfish fed a traditional commercial diet using soybean meal as the protein source to 5 other diets where soybean meal was replaced with various combinations of alternative protein sources including cottonseed meal, corn distillers dried grains with solubles, corn germ meal, peanut meal, and porcine meat and bone meal. There were no differences in growth, survival, feed conversion or processing yield among the diets, demonstrating that soybean meal could be completely replaced in catfish diets with less expensive alternative protein sources without negatively impacting production or processing traits.

Technical Abstract: A study was conducted in earthen ponds to evaluate the use of combinations of two or three alternative protein sources to replace soybean meal in diets for Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus. Six 28% protein diets containing various combinations of alternative protein feedstuffs including cottonseed meal, corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), corn germ meal, peanut meal, and porcine meat and bone meal (PMBM) were evaluated. Channel Catfish stockers (mean initial weight = 87 g/fish) were stocked into 30 earthen ponds (0.04 ha) at a density of 14,826 fish/ha with five ponds per dietary treatment. They were fed once a day to apparent satiation for a 183-d growing season. There were no significant differences in total diet fed, net yield, weight gain, survival, processing yield, and fillet proximate composition among dietary treatments. Results from the present study show all soybean meal could be replaced by two or three high-protein alternative protein sources without significantly affecting growth performance, processing yield, and fillet proximate composition in pond-raised Channel Catfish during food fish grow out.