FEED FORMULATION

INTRODUCTION• Demands for domestic fish for food and recreational value

increased…• AQUACULTURE practices are intensive or semi intensive..• So external feeds are required..• Such feeds are one of the major recurring coast of fish farming..• Proper nutrition is one of the most important factors influencing

the ability of cultured organism in sexual maturity, growth and longitivity..

• The nutrients requirement varies with species, within species also varies with different life stages…

• The main objective of feed formulation is to utilize the knowledge of nutrient requirements, locally available feed ingredients and digestive capacity of fish for the development of a nutritionally balanced mixture of feed stuff…

FORMES OF DIETS• Diets supplied to aquatic organisms could vary in form • Possible feeds include • Live foods ; generally required for the culture of most aquatic

organisms in their larval stage..• Forage materials; like grasses, or macrophytes, which may be

introduced into the culture system or made to grow in the culture system.

• Prepared foods; including a wide array of feeds, ranging from simple , on farm based mixtures of a few ingredients to microencapsulated diets..

• Most widely used are the third type…

FEED INGREDIENTS• Animal and fish feed ingredients are for the most part by products from the

human food processing industry ..• Feed ingredients are produced following the extraction of high value food

from raw materials which are considered unsuitable for human consumption.• A wide variety of ingredients are available for use in fish and crustacean

feeds, they are1. Grasses 2. Legumes3. Miscellaneous fodder pants4. Fruits and vegetables5. Root crops6. Cereals7. Oil-bearing seed and oil cakes8. Animal products9. Miscellaneous feed stuffs10. additives

1. Grasses Grasses are normally utilized either fresh or in the form of hay or silage.

Grasses are added very limited in fish foods. Dried grass used in shrimp feeds as a source of carotenoids. Grasses are of limited value in fish feeds except for herbivorous fish.

2. Legumes The leaves and stems of legumes are not much use in aquaculture, except

the plants like alfalfa, ipil-ipil etc... Legumes are rich in protein (20-50%) and minerals. Leguminous seeds

are rich in lysine but poor in methionine..Eg: acacia, clover, lucerne, ground nut(peanut) gram, lentil, locust beans,

chickpea, guar, ipil-ipil, beans, field peas, mug peas, soya beans etc...3. Miscellaneous fodder plants The leaves and other areal part of many plants, other than those

specifically grown for fodder are classified as miscellaneous fodder. These parts are washed and dried and used as leaf meal. These feeds have an advantage that it can not deteriorate the water quality.

4. Root crops Root crops , with some exceptions , are very deficient in protein,

calcium, phosphorous and vitamins. Waste from root crops can be utilised in small quantities in compound feeds, but generally many required heat treatment to destroy the toxins they contain. Some root crops have an extra important in aquaculture that is , they give stability to feed in water. So they use as binders...

Eg: potato, cassava, yams, carrots 3. Cereals cereals and cereal by products , despite their high carbohydrate content

form an important component in fish feeds .they act as a good binder. Cereals also rich in protein and lipid content of diet . Though deficient in some amino acid (eg: lysine) . They can be used to balance high animal and vegetable protein content .

4. Oil bearing seed by-products Many plants are farmed specifically for oil extraction, and a vast

quantity of by products are coming from the vegetable oil industry. These are used widely in animal feed production like aquaculture.

They are high in protein and low in protein , so potential content for aquaculture feed formulation.

Eg: soya bean, groundnut, mustard, sunflower, palm, coconut, sesame, poppy, cotton etc...

7. Animal by products Animal by products are either terrestrial, avian or marine animal

origin. They constitute the most important and most expensive ingredients of aquaculture feeds . These feed stuffs are necessary to balance the amino acids and vitamin deficiency in cereals and other plant part products in complete diet.

Fish meal is the major animal by- product used in aquaculture, also blood meal, feather meal, poultry meal, meat, raw fish, fish oils, fish silage, shrimp meal, and meat by products

By far the most suitable animal products for incorporation with fish diet are fish meal. It is mainly marine fishes such as by catches or a product of specific fishery such as Peruvian anchovy fisheries.

Traditionally in Asian countries like India and China animal by products such as silkworm pupae have been –and are being used as a feed for fishes.

8. Miscellaneous feed stuffs Many ingredients have potential use in aquaculture feeds, however

their value has not yet been fully assessed. Some of these ingredients are conventional or non conventional. The conventional . These are include the sugarcane molasses, leaf protein concentrate, minerals , sea weeds etc...

9. AdditivesAn increasing diversity of additives is being used in animal feed

stuffs, including synthetic amino acids, vitamins, binders, anti oxidants, preservatives, prophylactic medicines, hormones, and growth promoters etc... Most of these have very specific uses and may be non-nutritive.

DIET FORMULATION• Diet formulation is a process in which the appropriate feed ingredients are

selected and blended to produce a diet with the required quantities of essential nutrients .

• No single ingredient can be expected to meet all the nutrient requirement of a cultured organism.

• Various ingredients which is nutritionally balanced , pellatable, palatable and easy to store are used to formulating feeds.

• The basic information required for feed formulation are:1. Nutrient requirement of the species cultivated 2. The feeding habit of the species3. Local availability, cost and nutrient composition of ingredients.4. Ability of the cultured organism to utilise nutrients from various

ingredients as well as the prepared diet.5. Expected feed consumption6. Feed additives needed7. Type of feed processing desired

• Man factors to be considered when formulating feeds for use in aquaculture .

• Feed cost is considered to be the highest operational cost in both intensive and semi intensive aquaculture systems.

• Supplying adequate nutrition for various aquaculture species involves the formulation of diets containing about 40 essential nutrients and proper management of multitude of factors relating to diet quality and intake.

• So it is ensure that feed formulae developed are nutritionally and economically sound.

• An economic diet is expected to produce a kilogram of healthy fish at the least cost under normal growing conditions.

• To formulating economically sound and nutritionally balanced diets we can use two mathematical calculations.

• The are Pearson squares and linear programming.• On the basis these formulae man computer programmes are developed

for feed formulation.

Pearson squares• Formulation of diets with a few ingredients ,and in which amino

and fatty acid balances are not taken into consideration.• It is one of the best and simply achieved method• The complicated least cost formulae used in Pearson squares are

based on series of simultaneous equations.• It can be balanced only one nutrient (make your choice for crude

protein or crude fat) Sample Calculation

1. Please calculate to prepare a fish feed that includes 45% crude protein, using fish meal and corn gluten meal…2. Always keep in mind the nutrient value ofthe ingredients…3. Fish meal includes 65% crude protein,4. Corn gluten meal includes 40% crude protein…

5. What will be the solution to reach 45% crude protein using fish meal and corn gluten meal?6. The solution is to create a mixture rip… Fish meal, 65% 5 45% Corn gluten meal, 40% 20 ⁺------ 25% of Fish meal is calculated as: (5 x 100) / 25 = 20 % of Corn gluten meal is calculated as: (20 x 100) /25 = 80 7. The contribution from fish meal is: 20% x 65 = 13 The contribution from corn gluten meal is: 80% x 40 = 32 The total is: 13 + 32 = 45If we have more than two ingredients take them as groups and calculate the average value of each group.

Linear programming• Another mathematical technique available to nutritionists for selecting the

best combination of feed ingredients to formulate diets at the least possible cost is linear programming.

• The information necessary for using the technique includes1. Protein and fat content in the diet2. Nutrient content and DE(digested energy) or ME (metabolisable energy)

of ingredients3. Unit price of feedstuffs including vitamin and mineral mixture.4. Any other additives to be considered to be used in the feed 5. Minimum and maximum restriction on the amount of each ingredient in the

feed.Least cost linear programming software's for feed formulation are readily

available, the price varies with sophistication required.A commonly used spreadsheet such as Lotus 1-2-3 can also be used for feed

formulation. It is a high coast methode so not useful for local farmers.

Factors to be considered in feed formulationAs mentioned previously , many factors need to be considered in

order to formulate a feed which will provide optimal growth performance of the cultural organism,

These factors are1. Nutrient requirementIt is of vital importance that a formulated feed meet the nutritional

requirement of cultural organism. It mainly depends the intensity of the culture. The feed may be expected to provide all of the nutritional required or only some of it.

In order to do this , it has been suggested that the species, strain, stage of development and health, as well as temperature and environmental conditions of the culture systems be taken into account. All these factors have been shown to affect the nutritional requirements of the fish.

2. Composition of ingredientsA knowledge of the nutrient composition and available energy of

dietary ingredients is essential for their selection for used in diet formulation.

The compositions of feed stuffs are known to vary regionally, seasonally, and also with soil fertility and type of processing and storage .There for, it is desirable that each batch of feed ingredients is analyzed for actual contents.

3. Digestibility and nutrient availabilityIf feed formulation is performed correctly, a knowledge of

digestibility of the individual nutrients of all the ingredients is essential. The process of estimating these is tedious and time consuming. However general digestibility values for most of the major ingredients for the widely culture species are presently available and are often used in feed formulation.

4. Other dietary componentsCertain ingredients are added to the diets for physiological or economic

reasons, and include binders, antioxidants etc…These are added in small quantities and often have no direct nutritional

value and do not act as energy sources.However , when formulating feeds , allowances need to be made for

their inclusion.5. Flavour qualityThe influence of environmental factors on the organoleptic properties of

marine fish has been known for sometime. These factors include not only dissolved substances, the composition of the food chain, but also physical factors such as temperature, photoperiod and water cycle. At lower temperature, fish tend to accumulate more unsaturated fatty acids in their tissues. As the fatty acid composition is related to flavour and texture of fish meat. so uniform environmental maintenance also an important factor in feed formulation.

CONCLUSION• Feeding is the major factor which determines the economic gain from

aquaculture. It is also the major cost in aquaculture practices. So the feed formulation is a significant one.

• The feed we given to fish must contain energy sources, minerals, vitamins, other major and minor elements etc..

• The correct proportion of the metabolites with lesser cost is the basic of feed formulation

• The ingredients used for feed preparation are grasses, legumes, cereals, fruits and miscellaneous parts of plants, animal products etc..

• There are two mathematical methods are used for this, the are; Pearson square method and linear programming method.

• Also along with nutritional components in feeds , the environmental factors, digestibility, feeding habit , expected feed consumption etc… are also important

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