Aquaculture America 2023

February 23 - 26, 2023

New Orleans, Louisiana USA

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CRUDE PROTEIN AT DIFFERENT FEEDING RATES ON PACIFIC WHITE SHRIMP Litopenaus vannamei

Adela N. Araujo*, Khanh Q. Nguyen, Leila M. Strebel, Trenton L. Corby, Melanie Rhodes, Allen Davis

School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences

Auburn University

Auburn, AL 36849

ana0049@auburn.edu

 



Feed management is one of the most important factors in shrimp culture, as feed makes up around 60% of the total costs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different protein intake levels on growth performance, feed utilization efficiency, and whole-body composition of Pacific white shrimp using different levels of crude protein (CP). This was done by feeding four practical diets with 40%, 35%, 30%, and 25% of CP, which were fed at two different rates, one of them being the standard feed rate (100%) and a second adjusted rate to match protein intake, resulting in a total of 8 treatments with four replicates each. Juveniles (0.41g ± 0.01 [mean ± SE]) were stocked into a green water system with 32 culture tanks at a density of 30 inds/tank and reared for 77 days. At the end of the trial, growth performance parameters such as final weight, weight gain, biomass, and feed conversion ratio were found to be significantly different among treatments (p<0.05). All final body composition values (dry matter, CP, and minerals) did not show significant differences between the treatments except for fat (p<0.05). However, feed utilization measurements including apparent net protein retention (ANPR), and phosphorus retention did show to have significant differences (p<0.01). This study demonstrated that higher intake levels of CP in shrimp enact better with respect to growth performance and feed utilization.