IMPROVED SOYBEAN MEAL (EnzoMeal) ALTERNATIVE OF FISHMEAL FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION OF PACIFIC WHITE SHRIMP, Litopenaeus vannamei
Marine shrimp production has expanded by the nearly 15% growth per year over the last decade, representing almost two-fold the global aquaculture growth observed for the same period. Within the crustacean group, the Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) is the most popular cultured shrimp globally. The great majority of its production relies on high protein feeds typically containing around 20-30% fishmeal (FM), which leads to high production costs directly affecting the profitability and sustainability of farmed shrimp. To fulfill the high demand of shrimp feed, recently, Ohio Soybean Council and its research partners Kentucky State University and Battelle, Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio) have developed a new technology to reduce the anti-nutritional factors and enhance the protein content from convenational soybean meal without compromising the amino acid composition. It is called improved soybean meal (ISBM) or EnzoMeal. EnzoMeal removes many antinutritional factors, such as trypsin inhibitors, lectin and oligosaccharides (100% removed), phytic acid (78% decreased) and also decreases total carbohydrate content (31%) and enhances the protein content (22%) without compromising the amino acid composition.
The overall aim of the present work was to increase the usage of ISBM in feed for commercial shrimp production. Shrimp juveniles (2400; average weight 3.1g) were randomly distributed and stocked into twelve large tanks (1000 L each) in a closed recirculating system. Shrimp were fed four iso-nitrogenous (38% crude protein) diets for 12 weeks. A control diet (30% fishmeal) and three experimental diets wherein 33, 66 and 100% fishmeal protein replaced by ISBM (ISBM33, ISBM66 and ISBM100 respectively).
Results from this study reveals similar (P ≥ 0.05) growth performance, nutrient utilization parameters and survival rate of EnzoMeal-fed groups compared to fishmeal-fed group. Final body mass gain, survival rate, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio were in the range from 588 - 688%, 82 - 88%, 1.74 - 1.82 and 1.24 - 1.36 respectively. EnzoMeal inclusion in shrimp diets did not influence (P ≥ 0.05) the total omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, EPA, DHA and cholesterol content in tail meat of shrimp. Physiological parameters including albumin, globulin, total protein, creatinine, glucose concentration and glutathione peroxidase activity in hemolymph of shrimp did not differ significantly (P ≥ 0.05) among the groups. Overall, this study suggests that there is potential for total replacement of fishmeal with an alternative, sustainable, plant protein such as improved soybean meal (EnzoMeal) for aquafeed.