Chemical Composition and Nutrient Digestibility of Super Worm Meal in
Juvenile Red Tilapia
M. D. Abd Rahman Jabir*, S.
A. Razak and S. Vikineswary
¹Institute of Biological
Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia
*Corresponding author:
abdrahmanjabir@gmail.com
Abstract
The chemical composition and
nutrient digestibility of super worm (Zophobas morio) meal were
determined for fish feed formulations. Experiments were conducted to compare
super worm meal (SWM) with fish meal (FM) as main protein sources for fish
diets. Super worm had lower protein content (42.83%) compared to fish meal
(52.64%). SWM contained high percentage (40.01%) of lipids along with quality
protein and this made it a suitable replacement for FM. SWM contained seventeen
amino acids including the essential amino acids. All eight essential amino acids
present were similar in values except for methionine which showed a large
difference with 5.75 (mg/g crude protein) and 21.17 (mg/g crude protein) for SWM
and FM respectively. SWM contained higher percentage of arginine and glutamic
acid while the rest of the essential amino acids were lower than those present
in FM. The fatty acid profile of SWM also showed a good polyunsaturated to
saturated fatty acid ratio (0.87). Apparent digestibility coefficients (ADC) of
protein in SWM diet was lowest (50.53±6.08%) and significantly different
(P<0.05) from that of FM diet (77.48±0.53%). Lipid digestibility of SWM based
diet was significantly lower (69.76±3.72%) than that of FM value (91.51±0.21%).
However, SWM-based diets fulfilled the requirements of fish recommended by FAO.
Key words: Digestibility coefficient,
Fish meal,
Red tilapia, Super worm meal