Bioavailability of porcine blood meal as a fish meal substitute in the diet for red sea bream (Pagrus major, Temminck & Schlegel) fingerling

We replaced fish meal (FM) with porcine blood meal (BM) in red sea bream (Pagrus major) diets to examine the influence on growth performance. Four experimental diets were prepared to be isonitrogenous and isolipidic by replacing 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% FM protein with BM (BM0, BM10, BM20 and BM30, respectively). After the 8-week feeding trial, the final mean body weight, weight gain, specific growth rate, daily feeding rate, condition factor and survival rate were not significantly different among the treatments (p > 0.05). However, feed efficiency tended to lower linearly as the dietary BM level increased, and no significant difference was observed between the BM20 and BM0 groups (p < 0.05). The protein digestibility in the BM20 and BM30 groups decreased significantly compared with that in the BM0 group (p < 0.05). Fat digestibility decreased significantly in the BM30 group than in other treatment groups (p < 0.05). The total serum protein and total cholesterol concentrations in the BM30 group were the highest among all treatment groups. In conclusion, BM can replace up to 20% of FM in the red sea bream diet without adversely affecting growth performance.