Partial replacement of protein in soybean meal by moringa seed cake (Moringa oleifera) in bocourti’s catfish (Pangasius bocourti)

Abstract

The present study was undertaken in order to determine the effect of a dietary of moringa seed cake on digestibility, growth performance, blood chemistry and histopathologic of bocourti’s catfish. Fish were fed with diets formulated by 0, 250, 500, 750, and 1000 g kg-1 of moringa seed cake to replace protein in soybean meal. Fish with mean wet weights of 21.50± 0.25 g per fish were fed experimental diets for 8 weeks. Significant differences (p<0.05) in weight gain, average daily gain and specific growth rate were detected between bocourti’s catfish given the experimental diets. All fish grew normally and no significant difference was observed for survival rate and feed conversion ratio among fish fed tested diets. The highest FCR was generally observed that as moringa seed cake inclusion increased in the diets that were noted to exhibit slightly poor growth performance, feed utilization and pepsin digestibility tested. Blood chemistry and hepatosomatic index did not differ significantly for any of the diet treatments. No histopathological changes were found in distal intestines and liver. The study indicated that the dietary moringa seed cake contains ingredients that could be used for bocourti’s catfish diets possibly not over up to for 500 g kg-1 soybean protein replacement without negative effect on growth, digestibility and histology.

Keywords

• bocourti’s catfish
• moringa seed cake
• growth
• digestibility
• histopathology