Nutrient Digestibility and Growth Performance of Juvenile Penaeus vannamei Fed Diets Containing the Filamentous Fungus, Paecilomyces variotii , Produced From Corn Ethanol Thin Stillage
Randomized trial evaluates nutrient digestibility and growth in juvenile Penaeus vannamei, suggesting 75% replacement of fish meal is feasible.
Key Points
This study aims to assess the digestibility and growth performance of juvenile Penaeus vannamei when fed diets containing the filamentous fungus Paecilomyces variotii.
Five diets were created by replacing salmon and poultry by-product meals with Paecilomyces variotii at levels ranging from 0% to 100%.
The shrimp were monitored for 78 days, tracking growth, survival, and feed conversion ratios.
Digestibility was measured using a substitution method to compare crude protein and amino acid assimilation between feed types.
Survival rates were high across all diets (95.6%).
Nutrient retention was optimal with a 75% replacement of fish meal, but complete replacement (22.60% PV) impaired final body weight (12.31g vs. 12.80g).
Amino acid digestibility was significantly lower for the PV diet, especially for methionine and lysine, compared to salmon meal.