Addition of combined defatted soybean meal, malt protein flour, and meat meal to yellowtail diet

Abstract

In order to reduce fish meal in fish diets by combined addition of several alternative protein sources, fingerling yellowtail Seriola quinqueradiata were fed for 30 days on single moist pellet diets including 0-20% of defatted soybean meal (SBM) or meat meal (MM) together with a fixed amount of 20% malt protein flour (MPF). The combination with 20% SBM reduced growth and feed efficiency, probably due to both the poor amino acid profile and low digestibilities of dietary protein and carbohydrate. On the other hand, the combination with up to 20% MM or 10% SBM exhibited comparable growth to single MPF inclusion. Furthermore, there were no marked differences in the body composition, hematological characteristics, and nutrient retentions in all groups tested. These results indicate that combined additions of MPF and MM could replace half of the fish meal in yellowtail diet without any deleterious effects.