Fish meal, fishmeal, tunafish meal, whitefish meal, anchovy meal, herring meal, menhaden meal, salmon meal

Description:  

Fish meal has been widely used as a supplemental protein source for many years primarily for monogastric animals. Two basic types of fish meal are produced; 1) produced from fishery waste (salmon, tuna, etc.) that are associated with the processing of various edible human fishery products and 2) when specific fish (herring, menhaden, pollack, etc.) are harvested just for the purpose to produce fish meal. The fish can be dried directly drying or cooking prior to drying and oil extracted. In addition to being a by-product of human fish production it is also a by-product associated with fish oil production. In some parts of the world it is often the primary supplemental protein source that is feed to livestock, because plant derived sources are either unavailable or are to expensive. The lipids associated with fish are highly unsaturated and highly susceptible to be oxidized. Amino acid quality of fish is excellent, but excessive heating during the drying process can reduce digestibility of the protein fraction and complex some of the amino acids, so that they are not available. Fish meal is often used as a by-pass protein source for feeding applications for lactating dairy cattle. Composition (CP, Ash, EE, etc.) of fish meal can vary depending upon what substrate and the method being used to prepare the meal. If fish that have been allowed to degrade prior to being processed are used in preparing fish meal, then the resultant fish meal will be of lower quality (25) (AGRIS 81-630691) (Bon, 1980).

Caution:  

Fish meal that has been produced from materials that has been allow to degrade prior to being processed can contain high levels of histamines and can be toxic (17) (AGRIS 93-031733) (Yuningsih, 1988). Elevated histamine levels (1000 ppm) can cause gizzard erosion and black vomit in poultry (17) (AGRIS 93-031733) (Yuningsih, 1988). Care should be taken to assure that the fish meal being used has not been contaminated with harmful substances (chlorinated hydrocarbons, dieldren, lindane, PCBs, etc.) that have been found in fish meals in the past (23) (AGRIS 80-554085) (Erne, 1979).

Source: 

Fish meal can be classified as two basic types; 1) fishery waste associated with the processing of fish for human consumption and 2) fish that are only used for the production of fish meal. The composition of fish meal can vary considerable depending upon the composition (whole fish, fish scraps, etc.) of the substrate that is used to prepare the fish meal.

Feeding Experiments:  

Fish meal has been widely used in feeding monogastric animal (poultry, etc.) for years, but more recently it is being used more for feeding ruminant animals. Fish meal was found to be superior to blood meal when fed to broilers (9) (AGRIS 89-093119) (Offiong, 1982). When fish meal replaced groundnut meal in pullet diets performance was improved during initial growth phase (20) (AGRIS 87-086660) (Olomu, 1985). A reduction in performance was observed when fish meal was replaced by plant CP sources in feeding applications with poultry (24) (AGRIS 84-112015) (Awal, 1983). Fish meal can be partially replaced in layer diets by other locally produced animal protein sources (snail meal, mussel meal, etc.)(22) (AGRIS 92-067107) (Lachica, 1990). Highest gains in young growing ducklings (0 to 4 weeks) was observed when 9% fish meal was fed, in older ducks (4-18 weeks) 9.5 % fish meal in the diets gave highest growth rate and 6.5 % fish meal gave the best feed conversion in the older ducks (4) (AGRIS 97-036245) (Narin-Thongwittaya, 1991). No differences in performance was observed in lactating dairy cattle when fish meal replaced meat and bone meal (1) (AGRIS 1998-095944) (Akayezu, 1997). Milk protein content was increased when fish meal replaced soybean meal in the diets of lactating dairy cattle (16) (AGRIS 94-057759) (Succi, 1993). Feeding of fish meal was found to increase protein utilization in lactating dairy cattle (14) (AGRIS 92-118036) (Broderick, 1992). Fish meal was found to give similar performance when replacing milk protein in milk replacers fed to dairy calves (2) (AGRIS 97-149411) (Aryogi, 1993).Incorporating fish meal into feeding programs was more effective in increasing gains in young than older ruminants (15) (AGRIS 91-113051) (Hussein, 1991). Only limited research has been conducted in other livestock species. Tilapia diets commonly contain fish meal and it has been shown to be an excellent supplemental protein source (19) (AGRIS 1998-098254) (El-Sayed, 1997). Fish silage (4 % formic acid) and local fish meal didn’t perform as well as Peruvian Fish meal when growing-finishing pigs (11) (AGRIS 88-046664) (Olivo, 1985).

Feeding and Handling Characteristics: 

Freshness of fish being processed into fish meal is highly correlated with the quality of the resultant fish meal (25) (AGRIS 81-630691) (Bon, 1980). The oils associated with fish meal contain highly unsaturated and are oxidizes easily. Storing of fish meal is dependent upon the oil content of the meal and how it has been stabilized with antioxidants(6) (AGRIS 1999-085040) (Wilairat-Jaroenjit, 1996). Solar dryers were effective in areas of high solar radiation for drying fish meal (13) (AGRIS 87-076132) (Dean, 1983).

Nutrient Characteristics:

 

					As % of dry matter
				DM	CP	Ash	EE	Ca	P	Ref
Fishery waste fish meal				93.8	54.9	26.6	12.8	4.44	2.78	225
(3) (AGRIS 97-125380) (Sakchai-Nakprayon, 1991)
Fish meal
(64 samples)				90.9 to 92.9	56.2 to 58.1	23 to 26.5	7.1 to 9.1
(12) (AGRIS 87-079858) (Amnuay-Chotiyarnwong, 1982)
		Amino acid composition as % of crude protein
Anchovy meal
CP	Arg	Cys	Gly	His	Ils	Leu	Lys	Met	Phe	Thr	Try	Tyr	Val
65	3.81	0.65	3.68	1.59	3.06	4.98	5.07	1.95	2.75	2.82	0.78	2.22	3.46
(Poultry NRC, 1994)
White fish meal
CP	Arg	Cys	Gly	His	Ils	Leu	Lys	Met	Phe	Thr	Try	Tyr	Val
62.2	.4.02	0.75	4.42	1.34	2.72	4.36	4.53	1.68	2.28	2.57	0.67	1.83	3.02
(Poultry NRC, 1994)
Menhaden meal
CP	Arg	Cys	Gly	His	Ils	Leu	Lys	Met	Phe	Thr	Try	Tyr	Val
61.3	3.68	0.57	4.46	1.42	2.28	4.16	4.51	1.63	2.21	2.46	0.49	1.8	2.77
(Poultry NRC, 1994)
Herring meal
CP	Arg	Cys	Gly	His	Ils	Leu	Lys	Met	Phe	Thr	Try	Tyr	Val
72	4.21	0.72	4.3	1.74	3.23	5.46	5.47	2.16	2.82	3.07	0.83	2.25	3.9
(Poultry NRC, 1994)
Limiting amino acids were found to be 1st – histidine, 2nd – methionine, 3rd –
tryptophan and 4th threonine when fed to rats (10) (AGRIS 89-041844) (Haque, 1988).
True amino acid availability of local fish meal = 80.9 % (7) (AGRIS 90-100461) (El-
Sherbiny, 1988)
True amino acid availability of imported fish meal = 91.7 % (7) (AGRIS 90-100461)
(El-Sherbiny, 1988)
Limiting amino acids for broilers - 1st limiting = methionine/phenylalanine/arginine, 2nd limiting =
histidine, 3rd = tryptophan/isoleucine, 4th = valine (8) (AGRIS 89-138027) (Haque, 1989)

References

68, 224, 225, 261, 302, 392, 455, 499, 516