Abstract
The present study was conducted to measure the growth performance in growing broilers given shrimp meal (SM) made of heads of black tiger (Penaeus monodon) (BT) and white leg (Litopenaeus vannamei) (WL) shrimps. Forty-two male broiler chicks (8 days old, Ross 308) were randomly divided into 7 dietary groups (control, 5% BT, 10% BT, 15% BT, 5% WL, 10% WL and 15% WL) having similar body weight (6 birds per diet). Metabolisable energy and CP were adjusted to about 3,180 kcal/kg and about 235 g/kg, respectively, and other nutrients were formulated to meet or slightly exceed the requirements. Diet and water were provided ad libitum during the experimental period (8 to 21 days old). The results revealed that body weight gain decreased in BT groups with increasing level of SM (P<0.05), and feed intake decreased slightly with increasing level of SM in diets. As the result, feed conversion ratio also deteriorated with increasing level of SM. Similar trend was observed in WL groups, but the adverse effects of SM were milder comparing with BT groups. Nitrogen retention in both BT and WL groups tended to decrease with increasing level of SM. Chitin digestibilities in WL groups were greater than the corresponding values in BT groups. In conclusion, it is suggested that WL heads can be more nutritious SM for broiler diets than BT heads.