Abstract

RUVALCABA MARQUEZ, Juan Carlos et al. Performance of Litopenaeus vannamei at different levels of daily protein intake and carbohydrate/protein ratios in low fishmeal content feeds. Biotecnia [online]. 2021, vol.23, n.3, pp.30-37.  Epub Mar 07, 2022. ISSN 1665-1456.  https://doi.org/10.18633/biotecnia.v23i3.1412.

The increase in shrimp aquaculture production relates to the development of increasingly efficient formulated feeds and feed management strategies. Protein, considered the most important ingredient in feeds, represent the highest economic and environmental cost. Therefore, determining the appropriate amount of protein is essential to maintain a balance between performance, cost, and environment in aquaculture systems. The objective of this study was to determine the mathematical functions of Daily Protein Intake (DPI), to evaluate feeds with different Carbohydrate/Crude protein (CBH:CP) ratio and low inclusion of fishmeal for L. vannamei juveniles culture. The adjusted mathematical function that best represented aquaculture feeding practices was DPI=44.7(BW)-0.714. In the first experiment, four variants of DPI (80, 100, 120 and 140 %) at a constant CBH:CP ratio was carried out, finding the best performance at 120 %. In the second experiment, diets with five levels of CBH:CP (g CBH: g crude protein; 2.1, 1.5, 1.1, 0.8 and 0.6) with constant Lip:CP were evaluated using the same DPI function. The CBH:CP levels variation had a significant effect on growth parameters, feed conversion rate, nitrogen retention and protein, determining that feed with 2.1 CBH:CP ratio presents the best results when using DPI=53.64(BW)-0.714.

Keywords : Daily protein intake; nitrogen retention; L. vannamei performance; carbohydrates:protein rates.