Effects of partial replacement of dietary fish meal by bioprocessed plant protein concentrates on growth performance, hematology, nutrient digestibility and digestive enzyme activities in juvenile Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei

BACKGROUND Bioprocessing of plant feedstuff can be a novel approach for reducing the overwhelming dependence on fish meal in aquaculture. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei fed solid‐state fermented protein concentrates in order to replace fish meal in the diet. RESULTS In the first trial, a group of 15 shrimp (average 3.88 g) were randomly distributed into aquaria in triplicate according to the experimental diets. Ten isonitrogenous (400 g kg−1 CP) and isolipidic (90 g kg−1 CL) diets were formulated to contain high‐protein fish meal (HFM) and low‐protein fish meal (LFM), and four types of bioprocessed protein concentrates (BPCs) as a replacement of fish meal (BPC‐A, ‐B, ‐C and ‐D) each at 30% and 50% FM replacement levels. BPC‐A was a solid‐state fermented mixture of soybean and corn gluten meals; BPC‐B was pre‐treated acid‐hydrolyzed BPC‐A; BPC‐C and BPC‐D were BPC‐A + 2% shrimp soluble extract (SSE) and BPC‐B + 2% SSE, respectively. After 8 weeks, shrimp fed the HFM, BPC‐B, BPC‐C and BPC‐D diets showed significantly higher growth performance at 30% FM replacement than those of shrimp fed the BPC diets at 50% FM replacement. Interestingly, shrimp fed the BPC‐D diet could replace up to 50% FM replacement. In the second trial, the results show that apparent digestibility coefficients of feeds and apparent digestibility coefficients of ingredients for crude protein were significantly higher in fish fed the BPC‐B, BPC‐C and BPC‐D diets. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrated successful partial replacement of high‐protein fish meal using high‐quality fermented protein concentrates from plant sources. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry