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Title: GROWTH, FEED CONVERSION, PROTEIN UTILIZATION AND SENSORY EVALUATION OF NILE TILAPIA FED DIETS CONTAINING CORN GLUTEN MEAL, FULL-FAT SOY, AND SYNTHETIC AMINO ACIDS

Author
item Wu, Ying Victor
item ROSATI, RONALD - TEXAS A&M UNIV
item Warner, Kathleen
item BROWN, PAUL - PURDUE UNIV

Submitted to: Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/12/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Increased use of domestic fuel alcohol, fermentatively derived from corn, reduces our dependence on foreign petroleum. Furthermore, it utilizes a renewable resource produced by American farmers. Fermentation of corn to make alcohol also produces corn gluten meal. As demands for fuel alcohol increase, a greater amount of corn gluten meal will be available, and it is economically essential to find new markets for it. Corn gluten meal is a potentially inexpensive ingredient for fish feed. It is important to determine if fish feed containing corn gluten meal will result in good growth. Substantial amounts of corn gluten meal was incorporated into fish feed with and without fish meal. The experimental feeds resulted in equally good fish growth when compared to commercial feed containing expensive fish meal. Corn gluten meal from corn can thus be used in fish feed, resulting in greater market demands for corn farmers and less expensive feeds for fish producers.

Technical Abstract: A control diet and experimental diets containing 36% protein, corn gluten meal, full-fat soy meal, and high-lysine corn were fed to tilapia with 9 g initial weight for 12 weeks in aquaria. Weight gain, feed conversion ratio, and protein efficiency ratio for experimental and control diets were not significantly different and ranged from 754-918%, 1.67-1.79, and 1.42-1.56, respectively. No advantage was gained when fish meal (4 or 8%) was incorporated into the experimental diets. Tilapia fed diets containing 3-4% fat performed equally well compared with fish fed diets with 7-8% fat. A trained 10-member sensory panel evaluated the flavor characteristics of harvested, cooked tilapia fillets, the intensities of flavor characteristics of cooked fillets from tilapia raised on pellets containing 23 and 34% corn gluten meal were not significantly different from fish fed commercial fish feed without corn gluten meal.