Growth performance and health status response of the Pacific white-leg shrimp Penaeus vannamei Boone, 1931 (Decapoda, Dendrobranchiata) fed a commercial digestibility enhancer in low fish meal diet with palm kernel meal replacement

Abstract The effect of a digestibility enhancer (DE) in a low fish meal diet on the growth and health status of the Pacific whiteleg shrimp, Penaeus vannamei was investigated using seven iso-nitrogenous and iso-lipidic (35% protein and 6% lipid) diets. These seven experimental diets were fed to P. vannamei , divided into five replicate experimental groups of shrimps assigned per dietary treatment, for 90 days. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) showed significant differences ( ) with the diet of 6% palm kernel meal (PKM) + DE delivering the best feed efficiency. Meanwhile, there were no significant differences in the survival rate (SR) found, however, numerically the group of shrimps fed with 2.5% PKM with DE had a higher SR compared to the other dietary treatments. For growth performance, no significant differences in the growth performance of the shrimp among the dietary treatments were observed, including also the date for the final body weight and the percentage weight gain. The body composition of the shrimp showed slight changes in nutrient retention, where those shrimp fed the diet with DE supplementation had a marginal increase in protein content (21.33% compared to 20.53% in the control) and energy content (96.46 kcal/100 g with 9% PKM + DE, versus 89.79 kcal/100 g in the control). In terms of health criteria, P. vannamei appeared to show changes in their status for specific indicators. This was apparent for shrimp fed increasing PKM irrespective of the additive for the total haemocyte counts. There was a progressive reduction in the level of lysozyme in shrimp fed PKM and this effect was accentuated for the PKM treatment receiving DE. The inclusion level of DE as much as 0.2% in feed formulated with graded inclusion levels of PKM, up to 9% to partially reduce the inclusion of fish meal and soybean meal, is still able to maintain the optimal growth and health of the shrimp, at the same time, we noted an increase in production efficiency by reducing feed formulation costs by 1.23-3.87%.