Author(s): Alofa Cayen S, Vincent Oke and Youssouf Abou

Abstract: A 42-days experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary replacement of fish meal with chicken viscera meal on growth, feed utilization and production of Clarias gariepinus. Fish (initial weight 8.0 ± 0.4g) were hand-fed twice daily to apparent satiation with three isonitrogenous (43% crude protein) and isocalorics (20 KJ/g gross energy) diets containing three levels of chicken viscera, 0% (diet A0), 30% (diet A30) and 50% (diet A50). The diet A0 acted as a control diet. Experimental diets were compared to the commercial diet Coppens developed for Catfish. At the end of the experiment, survival rate was high, with value ranging from 94.3% to 97.5%. Fish fed viscera meal showed significantly lower total feed intake (range: 2117 – 2183 g) than that of fish fed coppens (5195 g) and viscera-free (5800 g). Final weight (range: 39 - 111g), specific growth rate (range: 3.8 – 6.3%/day), food conversion ratio (range: 1.1 – 1.4), protein efficiency ratio (range: 1.7 - 2.2) and annual production (range: 14.7 – 50.6 Kg/m3/year) were significantly higher in fish fed coppens and A0 (P<0.05). However, feed conversion ratio in fish fed chicken viscera is relatively low (1.4 ± 0.1), ensuring that this protein is as valuable for the experimental fish. Ultimately, the incorporation of the chicken viscera causes a reduction of 58% on financial expenses related to the fish production. Surely, these findings will have great emphasis in the field of promotion of C. gariepinus rearing in rural areas.

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