Tra catfish (Pangasius hypophthalmus) residue meals as protein sources for growing pigs

Tran Trung Tuan

Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Angiang University (AGU), Angiang Province, Vietnam

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of diet containing Tra catfish residue meals on total tract apparent digestibility and performance of growing pigs.

Four diets were tested, based on cassava root meal as the energy source: Control diet (FM) was basal diet plus marine fish meal; Diet BM was basal diet plus broken meat catfish by-product meal; Diet OE was basal diet plus oil extracted catfish by-product meal, and Diets BH was basal diet plus bone and head catfish by-product meal. In the first experiment, total tract digestibility was determined in four growing pig in a 4x4 Latin Square design. In the second experiment, the same four diets were fed to 24 growing pigs in a Randomized Complete Block design with four treatments and six replications.

In experiment 1, there were differences among the diets in the coefficients of apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, ether extract and ash, that were the highest in diet BM and lowest in diet BH (P<0.05). Apparent digestibility of organic matter was highest in diet BH (P<0.05). In the second experiment, there were differences in the average daily gain (ADG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and backfat thickness among diets, with a descending trend from diets BM, OE, FM and BH (P<0.05). FCR in diets BM and OE were lower than in diet FM (P<0.05). However, FCR in diet BH was higher than in diet FM (P<0.05). Furthermore, backfat thickness in diets BM and OE was higher than in diet FM (P<0.05), while diet BH was lower than in diet FM (P<0.05). The iodine number in diet BM was higher than in diet FM (P<0.05), But, values on diet BH was lower than on diet FM (P<0.05). The feed cost per kg weight gain of diet BM was the lowest when compared to the other treatments (P<0.05). The gross income and net benefit per pig fed diet BM were higher than in the other treatments (P<0.05).

It can be concluded that there were differences in the total tract digestibility of dry matter, crude protein and ether extract among the protein sources, with the best values in the diet BM and the worst in diet BH in terms of growth rate.  The ADG, FCR and economic benefits of diet BM were highest, followed by OE, FM and BH.

Key words: Total tract apparent digestibility, average daily gain, feed conversion ratio, backfat thickness, iodine number, growing pigs, fish meal, broken meat, oil extracted and bone and head catfish by-product meals.

Table of contents

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….8

2. General discussion……………………………………………………….……………..9

            2.1 Method of processing catfish by-products………………………………...…10

            2.2 Nutritive value of catfish by-products………………….……………………11

            2.3 Nutrient requirements of pigs…………………………………….………….12

3. Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………....14

4. Acknowledgements…………………...……………………………………………….15

5. References………………………………..……………………………………………17

Paper I……………………………………..……………………………………………..19

Paper II…………………………………..……………………………………………….27

Appendix

This thesis is based on the following papers, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals I and II

I. Tran Trung Tuan and Brian Ogle. Evaluation of the apparent digestibility of diets containing fish meal and Tra catfish by-product residue meals in growing pigs

II. Tran Trung Tuan and Brian Ogle. Effects on performance of replacing fish meal by Tra catfish by products in the diets of growing pigs

List of Abbreviations

AOAC             Association of Official Analytical Chemists

CF                   Crude fibre

CP                   Crude Protein

CTTAD           Coefficients of Total Tract Apparent Digestibility

DM                  Dry matter

ME                  Metabolizable Energy

1. Introduction

In Vietnam, pig production accounted for 27 % of total agricultural production in 2008, and increased 1.5 times as compared to 2000. Pig production is one of the most important activities for development in rural areas of Vietnam, where small farmers lack agricultural technologies and have low incomes. The pig population in Vietnam has increased by 6.2 % annually from 2000 to 2006. However, pig numbers declined by 0.29 % in 2008 (Vietnam  Statistical Yearbook, 2008). Smallholders are faced with problems of low profits and incomes because of increasing animal feed prices. Lapar et al (2003) reported that around 80 % of the total pig population in Vietnam were raised in traditional smallholder systems, with diets based on rice bran, broken rice, maize, vegetables, and by-products from agriculture, such as cassava residue meal (Loc et al 1996), and rice distiller’s waste (hem) (Luu Huu Manh et al 2003).

The Mekong Delta is the main catfish producing region in Vietnam, in which Angiang and Dongthap Province and Cantho City accounted for most of the intensive catfish production (Chau Thi Da et al 2010). The development of Tra (Pangasius hypophthalmus) and Basa (Pangasius bocourti) catfish production is seen in both the number of ponds and stocking density, with highest intensive culture systems developing in the frontier of the Mekong Delta in recent years. The increase of fillet production for export, which is a high value product, has increased the living standard of people in the Mekong Delta in the Southern part of Vietnam (Pham Van Khanh 2004). The industrial catfish farms have been rapidly developing, and are the most important form of aquaculture. Recently, catfish production accounted for over one million tons from 6,000 ha of Mekong Delta in 2009, and this is expected to increase to up to 1.5 million tons from 8,600 ha in 2010, and is predicted to be up to 11,000 and 13,000 ha by 2015 and 2020, respectively (Chau Thi Da et al 2010).

The by-products of catfish processing, include heads, skin and viscera, which are the main products, and account for almost 60 % of the volume that enters catfish processing factories. This means that catfish by-product is a potential source of nutrients of high value for livestock feed (Lovell 1980). According to Nguyen Thi Thuy et al (2007), the by-products (head and bone, broken meat and skin) from the fillet processing factories in Angiang province account for 65 % of the volume, which means that this has a great potential as a source of protein for animal feeds.

The objective of this research to study if Tra catfish residue meal can replace traditional fish meal in diets for growing pigs without affecting the diet digestibility and the growth performance, and with economic benefits to producers.

The experiments were conducted with growing pigs to: 

·         Determine the apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, and ash in Tra catfish residue meal.

·         Determine the live weight gain, feed conversion ratio, back-fat thickness and economic benefits of feeding catfish by-products.

2. General discussion

In the Mekong Delta, where a major part of farmers are growing paddy rice for sale, pig diets are usually based on rice bran, broken rice, maize and cassava root meal as the main  ingredients to supply dietary energy. These are mixed with sources of protein such as: commercial concentrate feed, marine fish meal and soybean meal, in home-made concentrate diets for pigs, and/or commercial feed. In recent years, use of commercial feed has been increasing, and the price of marine fish meal has also been increasing as a result of the increasing cost of oil. Moreover, pig diet are based on rice bran, vegetable and agricultural by-product such as sweet potato vine, casava residue and hulled groundnut cake, therefore containing high fibre, and low protein and energy contents (Loc et al, 1996). It is very important to efficiently utilize locally available feed resources to raise pigs. Several studies have been done on the effect of using local feeds such as catfish oil in diets for fattening pig (Le Thi Men et al, 2003), and Tra catfish residue meal as a protein source for pigs (Le Thi Men et al, 2005). Other studies in the Mekong delta have focused on catfish oil combined with water spinach for finishing pigs (Le Thi Men et al, 2005), catfish by-product meals for pigs (Nguyen Thi Thuy et al, 2007) and catfish by-product meal and silage for growing pigs (Nguyen Thi Thuy et al, 2010). This study was concerned with evaluating locally available protein feed sources: broken meat, oil extracted, bone and head catfish by-products mixed with cassava root meal.

In Vietnam, cassava is the second crop after paddy rice, with 9395.8 thousand tons in 2008 (Vietnam Statistical Yearbook, 2008). Le Van An et al (2004) reported that cassava root meal contained 89.3 % DM, in which almost all is organic matter (98.3 %). The content of crude protein, ether extract, crude fibre, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber and metabolisable energy were 2.9, 1.9, 3.2, 9.3 and 3.6 and MJ/kg, respectively.

2.1 Method of processing catfish by-products

According to Nguyen Thi Thuy et al (2007) the processing of catfish by-products is performed by several methods, but the basic principle is grinding and boiling. Depending on the objective of the products, they are divided into wet or dry catfish residue meals, or oil extracted products. Normally, a product with low crude protein contains added cassava root meal. In contrast, a residue containing high CP will be without cassava root meal. Then the products are dried or not, depending on the immediate use, or stored (Figure 1).

2.2 Nutritive value of catfish by-products

Nguyen Thi Thuy et al (2007) reported that catfish by-product meal was classified into three groups: head and bone, broken meat and skin, and waste water and waste matter. Of these, broken meat and skin contained the highest level of crude protein and ether extract, and the lowest contents of ash, crude fibre, calcium, phosphorus and nitrogen free extract. In contrast, the lowest value of crude protein and ether extract were in waste water and waste matter. Moreover, the highest concentration of ash, calcium and phosphorus were found in head and bone. Furthermore, among catfish by-product meals, waste water and waste matter contained the highest concentrations of crude fibre and nitrogen free extract (Table 4).

Essential amino acids are named essential because they can not be synthesised by the animal at all or not in sufficient amounts, therefore, the diet must be supplied. The composition of amino acids contained in protein and their digestibility determine the nutritive value of that protein. An imbalanced protein that does not contain the correct proportion of amino acids would have a lower nutritive value. The animal has a specific requirement of amino acids rather than of protein (Table 5).

According to Miles et al (2006), the oil content in fish can be separated into liquid fish oil and solid fats during the processing of fish meal. The remaining lipids range from 4 to 20 % in fish meal and are highly digestible by all species of animals. Moreover, fish lipid is an excellent source of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids. In general, the oil content in catfish by-products meals is high, which is a specific catfish characteristic (Nguyen Thi Thuy et al, 2007) (Table 6).

2.3 Nutrient requirements of pigs

According to NRC (1998), the dietary requirements of growing pigs are as shown in Table 7, in diets which are based on maize and soybean meal and fed ad libitum.

In the tropical regions, the nutritional requirements for pigs are different from those in the temperate countries. High ambient temperatures can be beneficial in that little energy is needed to maintain body temperature. In addition, there is a negative effect of high ambient temperature, which reduces voluntary feed intake (Preston, 1995).

The demand for the highly digestible protein sources used in modern pig production has increased. To stimulate higher feed intake in swine, several animal protein sources have been used. These protein sources comprise spray-dried animal plasma, blood cell meal, fish meal, meat and bone meal, and poultry by-product meal (Bergstrom et al 1997; Shelton et al 2001; Derouchey et al 2002). However, these protein sources are expensive. Therefore, using alternatives to replace these, without decreasing pig performance is necessary. Catfish by-product meals are derived from the filleting processing and consist of viscera, head and bone, and scrap meat that are rich in protein, fat and macro- and micro-minerals (Nguyen Thi Thuy et al 2007). Moreover, digestible CP, EE and amino acids and ileal and total tract apparent digestibility were not different among these by-products (Nguyen Thi Thuy et al 2010).

There were significant positive relationships between the coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) of CP and EE and average daily gain, with R² = 0.9996, P = 0.001 and R² =0.98, P = 0.008, respectively. The CTTAD for CP and EE tended to be in the same order as the growth performance (Table 8) (Figure 2 and 3). According to Holness (2005) pigs depend on both the amount and quality of the protein and energy in their diet for good growth performance.

Conclusions

• There were differences in the total tract apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude protein and ether extract among the protein sources that was a factor contributing to the different pig growth rates.

• Average daily gain, feed conversion ratio and economic benefit of the broken meat (BM) diet was best, followed oil extracted (OE) meal and marine fish meal (FM). The poorest performance was on the bone and head meal diet (BH. Furthermore, iodine number in back-fat in decreasing order was BM, OE, FM and BH.

Acknowledgements

The studies presented in this thesis were conducted in the Angiang University Experiment Station in Chau Phu district, Angiang Province, Vietnam, supported by the Swedish International Development Agency/Department for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (Sida/SAREC).

I would like to express my gratitude to the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency, Department for Research Cooperation (Sida-SAREC) for the financial support of this thesis research.

I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Brian Ogle, Director of the ‘Regional-SAREC MEKARN Sustainable Livestock Production Systems’ Project, Department of Animal Nutrition and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Science, my supervisor, for valuable advice and useful guidance during the study period.

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Thomas Reg Preston, who helped me during the period of the study.

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Ngo Van Man, Regional Coordinator and Mr. Nguyen Van Cong for their valuable support.

I would also like to express my appreciation to all of the professors, associate professors, doctors and instructors who provided me with useful knowledge during the courses.

I would like to thank colleagues in Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Angiang University, who shared my work in the office during my research.  

I would like to give my best wishes to my parents, my older sisters and younger brothers for their sentiment; to my wife for her love and her sharing in all happiness and sadness; to my children daughter and son for their warmness given to me. 

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