Chemical Composition and Nutrient Digestibility of Super Worm Meal in Red Tilapia Juvenile

Abstract

The chemical composition and nutrient digestibility of super worm (Zophobas morio) meal were determined for fish feed formulations. Experiments were conducted to compare super worm meal (SWM) with fish meal (FM) as main protein sources for fish diets. Super worm had lower protein content (42.83%) compared to fish meal (52.64%). SWM contained high percentage (40.01%) of lipids along with quality protein and this made it a suitable replacement for FM. SWM contained seventeen amino acids including the essential amino acids. All eight essential amino acids present were similar in values except for methionine which showed a large difference with 5.75 (mg/g crude protein) and 21.17 (mg/g crude protein) for SWM and FM respectively. SWM contained higher percentage of arginine and glutamic acid while the rest of the essential amino acids were lower than those present in FM. The fatty acid profile of SWM also showed a good polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acid ratio (0.87). Apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) of protein in SWM diet was lowest (50.53±6.08%) and significantly different (P<0.05) from that of FM diet (77.48±0.53%). Lipid digestibility of SWM based diet was significantly lower (69.76±3.72%) than that of FM value (91.51±0.21%). However, SWM-based diets fulfilled the requirements of fish recommended by FAO.

Keywords

• Digestibility coefficient
• Fish meal
• Red tilapia
• Super worm meal