ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF THE SELECTED FRUIT PEEL POWDERS AS A FEED ADDITIVE ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, FEED UTILIZATION AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF THE WHITELEG SHRIMP, PENAEUS VANNAMEI

Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of selected fruit peel powder as feed additive on growth performance and feed utilization efficiency of Penaeus vannamei. A 75-day feeding trial was conducted using with fruit peel powder inclusion level 5% of T0 (control), T1 (orange peel), T2 (apple peel), T3 (papaya peel) and T4 (mango peel). Results show that weight gain and specific growth rate of shrimp in T3 treatment are significantly higher (p < 0.05) compared to other treatments. Moreover, feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and feed efficiency ratio (FER) were significantly improved in treatment T3. Antioxidant activity and survival rate was significantly higher in T1 treatment. The findings of the present study demonstrated that dietary supplementation of fruit peel powders at 5% inclusion level significantly enhanced growth performance and feed utilization in Penaeus vannamei. Among the tested treatments, papaya peel supplementation showed superior growth promoting effect, while orange peel supplementation exhibited better on antioxidant activity survival rate.