THE UTILIZATION OF PROFLOC™ AS A FISHMEAL REPLACEMENT IN DIETS FOR PACIFIC WHITE SHRIMP, Litopenaeus vannamei  

Nutrinsic Corporation manufactures a single-cell protein product called ProFloc™.  ProFloc™ is a valuable source of protein and other nutritional components for animal feed; it is sustainably produced and is available throughout the year.  Nutrinsic's first production facility in the United States is now online and is capable of producing 5,000 tons of ProFloc™ per year.  During the experimental feeding trial described herein, white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) were fed a conventional feed in which fishmeal was progressively replaced with Nutrinsic's ProFloc™ ingredient up to 100% replacement.  A latin-square design was used to determine the effect of ProFloc™ inclusion rate on shrimp growth when the animals were reared for 8 weeks in a research pond within 144, 1 m³ cages.  The initial mass of the animals was approximately 10g.  Feed was delivered onto feeding trays (one per cage) twice per day for 8 weeks.  At the completion of 8 weeks, the animals were removed and weighed.  Results show that ProFloc™ performs identically to fishmeal as measured by growth rate in white shrimp.  Analysis of variance showed that all feeds performed equally to one another and significantly better than the unfed controls as measured by growth rates (mass gained per time and specific growth rate). Mortality was equivalent throughout the cages and there was no correlation to treatment.  These results are consistent with completed laboratory trials in which menhaden fishmeal was completely replaced with ProFloc™.  It can be concluded that ProFloc™ can replace up to 100% of high-quality fishmeal in feeds for white shrimp.