What is it about?
Over the years aquaculture has depended on marine fishes for fish oil used in formulating fish feeds, but the supply of this resource has remained stagnant over the past years. This study was undertaken to assess the possibility of including pork fat as a lipid source in feeds for Nile tilapia. Different feeds containing 5, 7 and 10% pork far was fed to the tilapia over 3 months and it was realized that 5% swine fat performs just as well as fish oil.
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Why is it important?
Due to predictions that the expanding aquaculture sector cannot continue to rely on finite marine stocks for fish oil which is the lipid source, there have been several research works within the fish feed industry to find sustainable alternatives for dietary lipid sources. In Ghana, swine fats are readily-available in abattoirs at a very low cost of US$0.5 per kilogram and can serve as cheaper alternatives to fish oil in tilapia feeds.
Perspectives
Although it was successfully proven in this study that swine fat can serve as a lipid source in tilapia feeds, a drawback could be the various religious and cultural prohibitions on pork consumption globally which can affect the patronage of fish fed pork fat, which is a by-product of pig. But I am hoping in the wider sphere of things, this research will highlight the potential of swine fat as a resource and not a waste product.
Kwasi Adu Obirikorang
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Growth, feed utilization, and liver histology of juvenile Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed diets containing increasing levels of swine fat, Journal of Applied Aquaculture, July 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/10454438.2018.1493017.
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