An experiment was conducted to evaluate nutritional quality of several protein sources in diet for juvenile abalone Haliotis discus hannai INO by feeding them diets containing each of protein sources at a 30% level for 40 days. Growth rate expressed as a relative value to that obtained in the group receiving a diet containing casein as a protein source and PER of each protein source were measured as follows, casein: 100, 4.2; soybean meal: 63, 2.6; leaf protein concentrate prepared from rye grass: 53, 1.9; egg albumin: 47, 1.6; whole egg: 44, 1.6; white fishmeal: 35, 1.7 and corn gluten meal: 23, 1.2, respectively.These values were the highest in the abalone fed with the casein diet, suggesting a high nutritional quality of casein as a protein source in diet for abalone. While the dietary value of egg albumin, whole egg and white fishmeal were far inferior to casein, being quite different from the case of fish. The difference in protein quality is postulated to be mainly due to difference of digestibility of each protein source in the juvenile abalone. Improvement of digestibility of white fishmeal will be required for development of practical abalone feeds.
Feeding experiments were conducted three times to develop a semipurified test diet for abalone which is essential for investigation on nutritional requirements . Juvenile abalone Haliotis discus hannai INO weighing 3.1-4.3g in live weight (29-34mm in shell length) were fed on one of the variety of the formulated test diets containing casein or white fishmeal as a protein source , and different levels of sodium alginate, lipid and a mineral mixture , for 30 and 40 days, respectively.The growth rate and feed conversion efficiency (FCE) were compared with those obtained by feeding with live fronds of the alga Eisenia bicyclis as a control , which was known to have high dietary value for this herbivore. Dietary value of the casein diet was found to be comparable or superior to that of the alga. While feeding abalone on a white fishmeal diets resulted in a lower growth and FCE, being about 60% of those compared to the casein diets. These results clearly indicated that the casein diet used in these experiments was suitable as a semipurified test diet for abalone. Based upon the results of growth rate and FCE, it was concluded that an optimum level of sodium alginate, lipid and the mineral mixture in a casein diet was 20-30%, 5% and 4%, respectively.
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