Abou Traore1, Medard Gbai2, YAO LAURENT ALLA3, and Kouakou YAO4
1 Soil, Water and Geomaterials Sciences Laboratory (LSSEG), UFR STRM, University Felix Houphouët-Boigny of Cocody-Abidjan BP 582 Abidjan 22, Côte d’Ivoire
2 Unité de Formation et de Recherche en Agriculture, Ressources Halieutiques et Agro-Industries, Université de San Pedro, BP 1800 San Pedro, Côte d’Ivoire
3 Département aquaculture, Centre de Recherches Océanologiques Bp 18 Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
4 UFR-Sciences de la Nature, Laboratoire de Biologie et de Cytologie Animales, Pôle de Recherche Production Animale, Université Nangui ABROGOUA, 02 BP 801 Abidjan 02, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
Original language: English
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Abstract
The conclusions of studies on the incorporation of maggot meal in fish feed and its impact on zootechnical parameters are controversial due to the protein content of maggots varying from one author to another. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of maggot protein in the feed on the growth performance of tilapia Oreochromis niloticus fry at the juvenile stage during 75 days of rearing. The study involved the incorporation of maggot protein at different rate into the diet of 0.8 ± 0.1 g Nile tilapia reared in a concrete tank. Three diets (D20, D30 and D40) with maggot protein contents of 20, 30 and 40% respectively, competing with a local industrial reference feed (RD) ALIMPOI, were randomly applied in duplicate to the fish. The initial rationing rate applied was 20% the first month, 15% the second month and 10% the third month. The survival rates (Ts) were 99.89 ± 0.9, 98.96 ± 0.65, 99.59 ± 0.41 and 99.91 ± 0.7% respectively for RD, D20, D30 and D40 diet. The results obtained show that the best growth and feed efficiency performances were obtained with the RD (45.80g) and D40 (44.32g) diets. Maggot protein incorporated at 40% in Nile tilapia feed improves its growth performance (45.80 ± 8.93, 24.73 ± 5.37, 24.75 ± 4.66 and 44.32 ± 7.97 g, respectively for RD, D20, D30 and D40 diets). The use of feed containing maggot meal generated respective production cost reduction rates of 47.53, 53.65 and 64.67% for D20, D30 and D40 compared to the reference feed.
Author Keywords: fish, ciclidae, growth, feeding, fly larvae protein.
