Carcass Proximate Composition and Amino acid Profiles of Hybrid Catfish fed Supplementary Cockroach Meal

Abstract

The high demand for fish as a protein source in fishmeal with the increasing production pressure on aquaculture has led to the research on the use of insects as an alternative source of protein for fish production. Studies have been reported on nutritional potentials of some insect’s protein on growth indices with little attention on the fish carcass's proximate composition and amino acid analyses; thus, this study was conducted to investigate the carcass proximate and amino acid analyses of hybrid catfish fed supplemented cockroach meal. Four experimental diets were formulated with varying inclusion levels of the insect (Diet A (100% fishmeal), Diet B (100% cockroach meal), Diet C (50% fishmeal and 50% cockroach meal), and Diet D (Commercial diet)).  The hybrid catfish were fed twice daily with formulated/commercial diets for 12 weeks. After, the 12-week periods, pool samples of whole fish, were sacrificed for proximate analyses and amino acid analyses. The test fish carcass revealed the highest moisture content (9.22±0.01%) and crude protein (66.23±0.02%) values in Diet A and B respectively. Similarly, the highest crude fiber, ash, and carbohydrate content of 0.73±0.03%, 13.96±0.10%, and 12.55±0.13% were recorded in fish-fed diet B. The amino acid profiles of fish carcass fed diet B recorded the highest values of lysine, phenylalanine, methionine, proline, arginine, cysteine, alanine, and glutamic acid; glycine, threonine, and serine. Whilst other amino acids monitored in fish fed Diet B were moderate amongst others. The fish fed Diet C, also recorded positive (p<0.05) proximate compositions and amino acid profiles compared to the control carcass. The observed carcass proximate compositions and amino acid profiles in fish-fed Diets B and C may be attributed to the presence of cockroach meal in the diets. Hence, the inclusion of cockroaches in the diets of hybrid catfish could be employed as a potential source of protein for catfish fingerlings as revealed by the hybrid catfish carcass proximate composition and amino acid analyses. this makes a potential source of protein for human consumption