article · Aquaculture Reports
Replacing fish meal with plant proteins such as soybean meal and corn gluten meal can be enhanced by supplementing aquafeeds with betaine in Nile tilapia production. Diets pairing betaine with soybean meal, corn gluten meal, or a blend of both achieved fish growth and body protein levels equivalent to conventional fish meal feeds. These betaine-supplemented formulations also lowered feed conversion ratios and reduced body fat accumulation. Gut health showed marked improvements through lengthened intestinal villi and elevated numbers of goblet cells, matching outcomes from fish meal diets. In addition, fish fed betaine-enriched plant feeds displayed increased haemoglobin, total blood protein, and insulin-like growth factor expression, while genes linked to fat synthesis were downregulated. The combination of both plant sources with betaine produced the highest blood cell counts and significantly increased survival compared to unsupplemented corn gluten meal.
Aquaculture relies heavily on fish meal, which is expensive and environmentally constrained. Identifying dependable plant-based alternatives is critical for sustainable fish production. Demonstrating that betaine enables soybean and corn gluten meals to match fish meal in growth, feed efficiency, and gut health provides a practical pathway to reduce dependence on marine-derived feed ingredients.
This research is relevant to aquafeed manufacturers and commercial tilapia producers seeking to lower feed costs by replacing fish meal with plant proteins. The findings reflect applied and tested formulations evaluated through controlled feeding trials. Commercial deployment would require scaling these dietary ratios from trial settings into full-scale industrial feed processing and farm-level validation trials to verify economic feasibility and performance across different production systems.
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The present study was conducted to replace fish meal with alternative plant protein sources in aquafeeds. Therefore, soybean meal (SBM), corn gluten meal (CGM), and mix of SBM + CGM were used as alternatives to fish meal (FM) with or without betaine (B) in Nile tilapia diets. Positive control diet using FM and six other diets were formulated to contain SBM, SBM + B, CGM, CGM + B, SBM + CGM, or SBM + CGM + B. Dietary B improved fish growth and body protein content in comparison to the control and equal to fish fed FM-based diet. Reduced FCR and body fat content were observed in the case of fish fed FM, SBM + B, CGM + B, or SBM + CGM + B diets. The survival rate was significantly increased in the group of fish fed SBM + CGM + B when compared to fish fed CGM diet (P = 0.013) while no significant differences were reported among the other groups (P > 0.05). Markedly increased intestinal villi length and the number of goblet cells were found in FM, SBM+B, CGM+B, and SBM+CGM+B groups (P < 0.05). Hemoglobin, blood total protein, and IGF-1 gene expression were significantly (P < 0.05) increased in fish fed FM, CGM+B, SBM+CGM, and SBM+CGM+B diets, while fatty acid synthetase (FAS) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) were downregulated. The highest RBCs, WBCs, and globulin were observed in fish fed SBM + CGM + B diet, while the lowest number was found in the fish fed CGM diet. To sum up, B supplementation in tilapia diets acted synergistically with SBM, CGM, or both SBM + CGM to improve the growth, intestinal morphometrical indices, hemoglobin, and total protein and IGF-1 as well as decreased FCR, FAS, and LPL.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.aqrep.2020.100376
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