Apparent Digestibility Coefficients of Selected Feed Ingredients for Yellowfin Seabream, Sparus latus

The apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), gross energy (GE), and amino acid in seven feed ingredients were determined with juvenile yellowfin seabream (initial body weight, 41 ± 2 g; means ± SD) through two digestibility trials. The ingredients consisted of white fish meal (WFM), Peruvian fish meal (PFM), brown fish meal (BFM), rapeseed meal (RM), soybean meal (SBM), extruded soybean meal (extruded SBM), and peanut meal (PM). In each of the two trials, a casein–gelatin reference diet was mixed with test ingredients in a ratio of 70:30 to produce a series of diets, and yttrium oxide was used as the inert marker. The reference and test diets were fed to yellowfin seabream reared at 27.5 ± 1 C, and fecal samples were collected by siphoning. The derived DM, CP, and GE ADCs (means ± SD) for the test ingredients were, respectively, WFM – 72.3 ± 3.87, 86.4 ± 1.06, and 93.6 ± 2.63; PFM – 54.1 ± 15.45, 80.5 ± 7.81, and 77.4 ± 11.9; BFM – 57.7 ± 2.34, 82.8 ± 3.07, and 84.5 ± 5.77; RM – 33.5 ± 5.50, 84.7 ± 2.83, and 56.3 ± 9.87; SBM – 58.7 ± 4.42, 92.6 ± 3.94, and 58.1 ± 2.91; extruded SBM – 65.1 ± 16.52, 89.7 ± 1.68, and 64.8 ± 6.23; and PM – 70.6 ± 1.43, 97.3 ± 3.52, and 59.8 ± 4.78. The ADC of CP of both plant and animal feed ingredients was high, whereas DM and GE values varied greatly. Apparent DM digestibility coefficients of ingredients decreased as ash or fiber contents of ingredients increased, and the variation of apparent GE digestibility coefficients of ingredients is similar to that in DM, with the exception of the value for PM.