T.A. SETHURAMALINGAM AND P. SALVI
Abstract
Amino acid availability and protein digestibility for trash fish meal (FM), casein (CA), chicken intestine meal (CW), prawn head meal (PW) Dolicos lab lab meal, (DLL) groundnut leaf meal (GNL), cabbage waste (CAB) and cauliflower waste (CAU) were determined in Labeo rohita fingerlings. The selected ingredients were incorporated at 44-56% of the diet as they are the only source of protein to yield 36-42% crude protein. The apparent amino acid availability (AAAA) and apparent protein digestibility (APD) values were more or less similar i.e., 88 and 88%; 96.3 and 94.7%; 77.7 and 78.3%; 84.4 and 81.9%; 79.8 and 78.3%; 54.2 and 58.8%; 57.6 and 61.7%; 71.7 and 74.8% for trash fish meal, casein, OAT, P'W, GNL, CAB, CAU and DLL meals respectively. The True Average Amino Acid Availability (TAAAA) and protein digestibility values were also found similar viz., 90.8 and 93.6%; 97.7 and 98.8%; 86.7 and 89.3%; 88.4 and 89.9%; 82.2 and 83.5%; 58.7 and 59.2%; 60.6 and 62.4%; 65.8 and 69.5% respectively. Based on the values of protein digestibility all essential amino acid availability values were not significantly different (p > 0.05) except for histidine and lysine in CAB meals and methionine and proline in CAU meals. In this study the protein digestibility values were used to evaluate the availability of amino acid values in the diet. However, amino acids such as histidine lysine, methionine and proline in CAU and CAB meals have lower availability values than expected to correlate with protein digestibility values.