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Only properly prepared animal by-products, protein meals can be utilized as animal feed additive. However, different protein meals are appropriate for feeding different animal species. Since the link between feeding ruminant-derived meat and bone meal (MBL) and the occurrence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its human equivalent variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) has been established, it is imperative that potentially infective material is excluded from the food chain. Thus the aim of this study is to develop a spectral method which will allow to estimate the ratio of meat and blood protein meal in the final product. Consequently of the method is applicable to identify the purity meat and blood meal. During the test the products were mixed in different proportions and were examined by the spectral method. Measurements were conducted with AvaSpec 2048 spectrometer in visible (VIS) and in near infrared (NIR) wavelength range (400-1000 nm) to define the spectral differentiation of the different meal products. Significant difference can be detected in spectral reflectance between the meat and blood product in the VIS-NIR range. The blood product has a characteristic spectral property: in the range of600 and 735 nm reflectance values are increasing following a sigmoid curve. Beside the inflection points, based on the sensitive wavelength range VKFI (R930/R600) is produced for detecting protein meal purity. Furthermore, the integral of the reflectance curve at the sensitive spectral range is found to be also a good solution for the monitoring of purity. Inflection point of meat meal and blood product are also determined. As a result, the range of wavelength can be determined, which is suitable for detecting individual characteristics of the investigated products. Using spectral examination for determining composition of the products could be quick and low energy method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the potential of replacing fish meal with processed animal by-product meals, meat meal and blood meal (4:1 ratio), in practical diets for juvenile grouper (Epinephelus coioides). Eight isonitrogenous diets were formulated to contain 45% protein and 12% lipid. Fish meal was replaced by 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% of meat meal and blood meal (4:1) mixture (diets 1–8). The diet with 100% fish meal (diet 1) or trash fish as feed (diet 9) were used as controls. Grouper juveniles were reared in 250-l circular fiberglass tanks maintained in a flow-through seawater system. Each dietary treatment was tested in quadruplicate groups of 25 fish per tank arranged in a completely randomized design. Fish were fed the diets twice per day at a daily feeding rate of 5–6% of biomass and trash fish at 10–12% of biomass for 60 days. Percentage weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR), survival, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and body composition of grouper juveniles were measured. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in growth performance among fish fed diets 1–7 (0–80% fish meal replacement) with those fed diet 9 (trash fish as feed). However, fish fed diet 3 had significantly higher (P<0.05) growth than those fed diet 8 (100% fish meal replacement). Survival among fish fed the experimental diets did not significantly differ (96–100%) but was significantly higher (P<0.05) than survival (90%) of fish fed trash fish. These results showed that up to 80% of fish meal protein can be replaced by processed meat meal and blood meal coming from terrestrial animals with no adverse effects on growth, survival, and feed conversion ratio of E. coioides juveniles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]