Complete Replacement of Fish Meal with Potential Aquafeed Ingredients for Rainbow Trout in Iran

Iran, as one of the largest rainbow trout producers in the world, needs sustainable aquafeed resources to fulfill the requirements of this growing industry. Therefore, locally available canola meal, feather meal, blood meal and poultry by-product meal were evaluated on their suitability for feeding rainbow trout. Fish growth performance and apparent digestibility coefficients (ADCs) of nutrients were investigated for three casein-based fish meal-free diets, a practical feed including 10% spray-dried blood meal, 22% poultry by-product meal, 10% feather meal (GOLDMEHL®), 10% canola meal and 15.5% wheat flour in comparison to a commercial diet containing fish meal. The diets were allocated to aquaria in three replicates arranged in a random-block-design. Findings of the present study illustrated that growth performance remained unchanged (p>0.05) among fish fed fish meal-free diets and the commercial one. Formulating aquafeed using properly processed local feed ingredients such as poultry slaughterhouse by-products, canola meal, and crystalline amino acids can provide a sustainable solution to meet the feed requirements of the growing aquaculture industry on a regional scale. This research shows the potential for using locally available resources in aquafeed manufacturing.