2015/04/01 by Luiz Vítor Oliveira Vidal, Tadeu Orlandi Xavier, Mariana Michelato +3
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Immunology and Microbiology · #Animal Nutrition and Physiology #Aquaculture Nutrition and Growth #Aquaculture disease management and microbiota
paper · doi:10.1111/jwas.12184
openalex publication_date 2015/04/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract We assessed the nutritional value of corn in extruded diets for Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus , by determining the apparent digestibility coefficients of dry matter, crude protein, and gross energy, and by measuring the apparent availability coefficients ( AACs ) of essential and non‐essential amino acids ( AAs ) in several corn‐based diets. We fed 180 juvenile Nile tilapia a reference diet containing 325.8 g/kg crude protein and 4613 kcal/kg gross energy or a test diet containing a 70:30 mixture of the reference diet and a test ingredient (whole corn, corn germ, corn germ meal, corn gluten feed, or corn gluten meal). The apparent digestibility coefficients ranged from 56.3 to 96.6% (dry matter), 89.4 to 96.8% (crude protein), and 59.0 to 95.4% (gross energy). The AACs of all AAs exceeded 80% for all diets and were >90% for corn gluten meal. All ingredients showed high levels of apparent digestibility for crude protein and high AACs of AAs . Diets based on whole corn or corn gluten meal showed higher digestibility values for dry matter and gross energy, suggesting that they are preferable choices for Nile tilapia.