192 research outputs found
Manufacture of pelletised feeds, their storage and quality control
Presentation of feed in its most suitable physical
form is key to the successful performance of the feed. The
physical design of a feed should be in accordance with the
feeding habits of the candidate animal and should not cause
any impediment to its feeding activity. It is also important
to consider that the design of the feed should have the
practicability of inexpensive storage and easy way of
dispensing. Involvement of sophisticated processing enhances
the cost of production. Finfish generally graze the
feed. The convenient way of presenting the feed to them is
in the form of wet dough, certain fish can also freely feed
upon floating pellets and flaked feeds
Formulation of compounded feeds for prawns
Compounded feeds have been one of the essential
requisites in the development of aquaculture. Rearing of
larvae in the hatchery, postal larval rearing in the nursery
until they become stockable size and their subsequent culture
in grow-out ponds require appropriate and nutritionally
balanced compounded feeds. Compounded feeds have many
advantages. By understanding the nutritional requirements
of the candidate species of culture, nutritionally well
balanced feeds could be formulated using low-cost feedstuffs
available in the concerned region. These feeds could be
prepared in large quantities with good shelf life and can be
used off the shelf wherever and whenever required. Preparation
of compounded feed does not require extensive area and highly
skilled man power. High efficiency of the feed could be
achieved by judicious manipulation of feed ingredients and
can be made economically feasible. Dispensing of compounded
feeds is quite convenient over large farm areas and automatic
feed dispensing devices could be successfully employed
Mineral requirements of finfish and shellfish
In animal nutrition, while protein, lipid and carbohydrate
are required in major quantities, vitamins and minerals are required in small quantities in the diet. Though minor in nature, the mineral nutrition i s not less important. Minerals are very essential because animals are
not capable of synthesising them and should be supplied
through external source. Many of the minerals are v i t a l for
healthy growth of the animals and the- prolonged non-
availability, either through diet or through environment, may
cause irrecoverable deficiency disease
Determination of growth inhibitors and toxins
Certain feedstuffs contain natural toxins that; at high
enough levels, are growth inhibitors and sometimes fatal to the
animal consuming them. Principal among these are: (a) Urease-an
enzyme found in raw soybean which produces toxicity through the
hydrolysis of urea to ammonia; (b) gosaypol-an endogenous toxin
present in the gland of cottonseed which persists during production
of the meal unless removed by a special process, or, unless,
the cotton seed is a glandless variety; (c) Isothiocyanatescyanogenic
glycosides are found in linseed and cassava; (d) aflatoxin
is a class of extremely potent toxins produced by the mould
Aspergillus flavus. Aflatoxin may be present in any materials
produced and stored under hot and humid conditions and is usually
found in groundnut cake, palm cake, copra cake and maize
Impact of particle size of ingredients in compounded diets on pellet stability and performance in Penaeus indicus H. Milne Edwards
The impact of particle size of ingredients in a research diet and a practical feed in the water stability of pellets. Their
digestibility, growth, and food conversion ratio in the prawn Penaeus ;ndicus were investigated. The research diet
consisted of casein, code liver oil, sucrose, starch, cellulose and other additives while the practical feed was made
up of prawn waste mantis shrimp (Squilla), fish meal, groundnut oil cake and tapioca. Casein in the research diet
and prawn waste, mantis shrimp, and groundnut oil cake in the practical feed were prepared into panicles of 500,
420,300,250,2 10, 100, and 50 gm and dry pellets were prepared with ingredients in each size
Proximate composition analysis of feeds
The chemical composition of the feed gives its potential
nutritive value and hence, in the assessment of quality of a
feed the proximate principles are first determined. The Weende
proximate analysis system for analyzing animal feed includes the
determination of moisture (dry matter) ether extract (crude fat)
crude protein, ash, crude fibre and nitrogen free extract (NFE)
Determination of minerals
Mineral elements have a great diversity of uses within the
animal body. The prominence of each mineral element in body
tissues is closely related to its functional role. Calcium and phosphorus are too major mineral elements that must be present in adequate amounts in the feeds supplied. The amount of sodium chloride and potassium in certain feeds should also be ascertained to screen out feeds for feeding fish and shellfish
Compounded feeds for post larval rearing of marine prawns
Availability of appropriate feed has been the main constraint for rearing the various stages of prawn larvae. This is largely overcome by the use of live feed cultures. But the maintenance of these live feed cultures require specialised technical inputs, labour and time
Preparation of artificial diets for nutritional studies
The H 440 standard reference diet of Halver (1969) has*
proven satisfactory for use with a variety of species of fishes.
If this exact formula does not prove satisfactory for growth and
survival of the test fish, slight modifications of clearly
explained ingredient changes still permit meaningful comparisons
of the test fish results with other species
Determination of vitamins in feeds
The vitamins, though required in small amounts in the
diet, play major roles in growth, physiology and metabolism of
the animal. Their absence in the diet causes major deficiency
syndromes. Also, the vitamins should be present in optimum
levels in the diet; any excess in certain vitamins in the diet
causes pathological symptoms and inhibit growth. Therefore,
the determination of the amount of different vitamins present
in the diet is very important
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