Affiliations 

  • 1 Institute of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Institute of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. shahdin@um.edu.my
Fish Physiol Biochem, 2016 Aug;42(4):1143-55.
PMID: 26886132 DOI: 10.1007/s10695-016-0204-8

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the growth performance, biomarkers of oxidative stress, catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione S-transferase (GST) as well as the haematological response of African catfish after being fed with fish feed containing different levels of cricket meal. The juvenile fish were assigned to three different treatments with isonitrogenous (35 %) and isoenergetic (19 kJ g(-1)) diets containing 100 % cricket meal (100 % CM), 75 % cricket meal (75 % CM), and 100 % fishmeal (100 % FM) as control groups for 7 weeks. The results indicated that a diet containing 100 % CM and 75 % CM improved growth performance in terms of body weight gain and specific growth rate, when compared to 100 % FM. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) did not differ significantly between all diets, but reduced FCR and increased PER were observed with a higher inclusion of cricket meal. A haematological examination of fish demonstrated no significant difference of red blood cells in all diets and white blood cells showed a significantly higher value in fishmeal-fed fish. On the other hand, haemoglobin and haematocrit significantly increased with increasing amounts of cricket meal in the diet. Antioxidant activity of CAT was higher in the 100 % CM group compared to fish fed other diets, whereas GST and SOD showed increasing trends with a higher incorporation of cricket, although insignificant differences were observed between all diets. These results suggest that cricket meal could be an alternative to fishmeal as a protein source in the African catfish diet.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Similar publications