| heal.abstract |
Mussels can be used as alternative protein sources for animal feeds. In this study, two experiments were conducted to examine the effect of frozen raw mussels and mussel meal on the growth performance of sea bream and sea bass fingerlings. The materials were mixed with the same commercial feed, using a simple method that can also be applied on-farm and the resulting diets were iso-energetic with the commercial one. In sea bass, the weight gain (WG) and the specific growth rate (SGR) were significantly higher in fish fed only on the commercial diet. However, fish fed on the commercial diet mixed with the fresh frozen mussels exhibited substantially improved feed conversion rate (FCR) and protein efficiency rate (PER). In sea bream, similar trends were noted, but no statistically significant differences were noted in WG and SGR. These first results are encouraging and indicate that when certain conditions are met, and particularly in relation to their microbial load, mussels can be co-cultured with sea bream or sea bass and used as nutritional supplement in their diets. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. |
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