9 Mar, 2022
by Wang Qin, Yi Jianhua, Wang Hui, Song Qingyang, Xiao Xiangqian
The fish meal has advantages such as high protein content, comprehensive essential amino acids (EAA), abundant saturated fatty acids and low carbohydrate content, and can be easily digested and absorbed by animals, for which it has always been the preferred high-quality protein source in aquatic feeds.
In recent years, due to overfishing, environmental pollution, hurricanes and other adverse weather conditions, marine fishery resources have declined, and the global annual fish meal production has remained at around 6.5 million tons, which may even see a decrease in the future. In contrast to this, the world's aquaculture industry has witnessed a growth rate of 11% on average. This imbalance between supply and demand has led to rising fish meal prices and breeding costs, hence severely restricting the sustainable development of the aquaculture industry. Therefore, concerning the economic and ecological benefits, the top priority is to find a protein source that can partially or completely replace the fish meal.
It is even more urgent to reduce the amount of fish meal in the feed. However, the reduction in the use of fish meal may have the following effects on the feed:
The first point lies in deficiencies of known nutrients, such as amino acids, protein vitamins, trace elements and lipids;
The second falls into deficiencies of unknown nutrients, such as trimethylamine oxide, taurine, etc.;
The third is the lack of functionality, reducing the palatability of the feed as a result.
There are mainly three protein sources to replace fish meal, namely, vegetable protein source, animal protein source and microbial single cell source. Among them, the vegetable protein source contains anti-nutritional factors, which are not conducive to nutrient absorption. The animal protein source, though being cheap and similar to the fish meal in terms of nutrient composition, carries with itself biosafety risks. Microbial single cell source can be mass-produced without geographical restrictions, and contains a large amount of functional nutrients able to offset the lack of nutrition and function caused by fish meal reduction.
Yeast, the most mature and reliable source of single-cell protein, gradually plays an important role in reducing the use of fish meal. GroPro Aqua is a functional protein product, with Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the bacteria and through liquid fermentation, obtained from concentration and drying after autolysis or exogenous enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis, rich in amino acids, small peptides, β-glucans, mannose oligosaccharides and other nutritional active substances. Proved by numerous studies for its fish meal reduction, GroPro Aqua has been widely used in aquatic feeds.
At present, it has a crude protein content of 35%~55%, and has been used as a functional protein in aquatic feeds to reduce the use of fish meal, along with which breeding validation experiments are carried out. Studies have shown that GroPro Aqua is rich in nutrients such as small peptides, and can be used to make marine larvae and juvenile fish feed in replacement of the fish protein hydrolyzate. When 2% GroPro Aqua was used to replace the fish meal in the feed, the activity of serum lysozyme, liver acid phosphatase, nitric oxide synthase and liver superoxide dismutase of juvenile turbot in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group. Four different sources of protolysate were used to replace the fish meal and then fed to Litopenaeus vannamei, among which the fish protein hydrolyzate had the best effect, followed by GroPro Aqua, porcine blood protein hydrolyzate and soybean meal protein hydrolyzate. The addition of GroPro Aqua to the Penaeus vannamei feed can reduce the usage amount of fish meal, lower the mortality rate of Litopenaeus vannamei, and increase the disease resistance and survival rate of the shrimp, which is beneficial to the breeding of Litopenaeus vannamei. 1% GroPro Aqua was used in combination with soybean meal to reduce the usage amount of fish meal (replacing 33% of the fish meal), causing no effect upon the growth of Allogynogentic crucian, but significantly promoting its immune performance. In the cobia feed formula, the usage amount of fish meal was decreased gradiently, and the amount of GroPro Aqua was gradually increased. The test results showed that the use of GroPro Aqua in replacement of 25% of the fish meal in the feed could achieve better growth effect.
In conclusion, GroPro Aqua, as a high-quality functional protein, can be used in aquatic feeds to improve the production performance of aquatic animals and reduce the usage amount of fish meal. Coupled with the cost consideration, it is recommended to replace 20% of fish meal with vegetable protein source and add 3% of GroPro Aqua.
 | Published by Wang Qin Engineer of Animal Nutrition Division |
About Angel Animal Nutrition:
Fubon is a brand of Angel Animal Nutrition. Fubon is committed to developing natural, efficient microbial feed derived from yeast with Angel's leading technology in yeast industry, providing the best service solutions for the nutrition and health in animals. Angel Animal Nutrition creates value for global feed and animal agriculture customers through continuously upgraded products and professional services.
About Angel:
Angel Yeast Company is a high-tech listed company specializing in yeast and biotech. Product business covers Yeast and Baking, Yeast Extract-Savoury, Nutrition & Health and Biotechnology fields. It is one of the world's leading companies in the yeast industry. Angel has 12 holding subsidiaries and provides products and services for more than 150 countries and regions.
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