Replacement of Poultry By-product Meal in Production Diets for the Pacific White Shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei

In recent years there has been increasing interest in the replacement of animal proteins with plant proteins in commercial feeds for the Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. Both pond- and tank-based experiments were conducted to evaluate the potential of replacing poultry by-product meal (PBM) with a combination of soybean meal, corn gluten meal, and a low level of squid meal. For pond-based research, juvenile shrimp were stocked at 34 shrimp/m2 and were cultured in 0.1 ha ponds under standardized production conditions. These four diets and a commercial reference diet were evaluated in an outdoor tank system stocked with 30 juvenile L. vannamei per tank. Culture water was pumped from a production pond to these tanks to mimic production pond conditions with a more uniform environment. Feed rates were predetermined by using a feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 1:1.2 and an average weekly growth of 1.5 g/wk. Final yields in the pond study averaged between 6093 and 6943 kg/ha. Average final weights varied between 22 and 24 g, survival varied between 78.9 and 82.2%, and the FCR was 0.94–1.09. The 79-d tank culture produced average final weights between 19.9 and 20.5 g, survival varied between 94.2 and 96.7%, and the FCR was 1.10–1.18. There were no significant differences found between any of the PBM replacement diets in either the pond or tank study.