Trabajo De Investigación

Impact of Replacing Fish Meal with Empyreal® 75 in Seriola Lalandi on Growth and Production

Marzo 06, 2019

Background: The yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) is a marine fish commonly produced in Pacific regions. However, development of this species as an alternative to other marine species in aquacultures is on a rise globally. Empyreal 75 is a proven value-added option to replace other protein ingredients in the diet. Replacement of common protein sources in yellowtail diets with Empyreal 75 is beneficial to understand application of this technology.


Objective: Test the production performance of yellowtail kingfish using Empyreal 75 in place of fish meal.


Materials and Methods:

  • Treatments consisted of two diets containing either fish meal or Empyreal 75, with the latter diet supplemented to balance the amino acid profile (Table 1).
  • Each treatment group had 100 yellowtail kingfish, weighing approximately 324 g, divided into four replicates with 25 fish per replicate.
  • Feed response was measured at the end of 12 weeks with yellowtail counted and weighed to determine: weight gain, survival and feed conversion ratio.


Table 1: Composition of basal diet and Empyreal 75 diets. Diets formulated to contain 36% protein and 8% lipid.


Results:

  • Although the control diet, containing fish meal, had higher growth production, this was not significantly different from the Empyreal 75 diet (Table 2).
  • Empyreal 75-fed yellowtail had a slightly better feed conversion ratio.
  • As noted in the below figure, muscle coloration was not affected by feeding Empyreal 75 and the Empyreal-fed fish had a “wild caught” nature due to coloration on the tail.


Table 2: Production response in yellowtail kingfish to Empyreal 75 fed over 12 weeks


Control Diet:



Empyreal 75 Diet:


Conclusions:

  • Based on this research, Empyreal 75 can replace fish meal in yellowtail kingfish diets. However, total replacement may not be optimal.
  • Based on other research, up to 15% replacement may be optimal to achieve equivalent or improved growth.
  • Reduction in other proteins that may not be sustainable, or contain anti-nutritional factors, can be beneficial to production.


Cargill Branded Feed creates proprietary feed ingredients to improve digestive health and performance for production animals in the beef, dairy, aquaculture and pet food markets. Branded Feed is a segment of Cargill Starches, Sweeteners & Texturizers (CSST).