Sulfuric acid treated date pits as dietary ingredient in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) diets [electronic resource].

Includes references.

Five isonitrogenous (40% CP) and isocaloric (19 MJ/kg) diets were formulated to investigate the utilization of acid treated date pits as carbohydrate source for tilapia fingerlings (Oreochromis ni/oticus). Tilapia with an average body weight of6.61 :t 0.04 g were randomly stocked for 42 days in self-cleaning, fiberglass tanks. Diet 1 (control) contained 30% wheat flour as the main source of carbohydrate. Wheat flour in diets 2 and 4 was replaced by 50% (15% of the total diet) and 100% (30% of the total diet) untreated date pits, respectively. Also, treated date pits replaced 50% and 100% of the wheat flour in diets 3 and 5, respectively. Date pits were immersed in 70% H2 S04 for 30 min. and neutralized to pH 7 by sodium hydroxide. Growth performance, feed conversion ratio and protein productive value were significantly (P<0.05) higher in fish fed diet 3 (15% treated date pits), whereas fish fed diet 4 gave the lowest values (P>0.05). Fish received diets containing treated date pits had better productive performance values than that fed untreated date pits, within the same replacement percentage. Carcass analysis showed significantly (P<0.05) higher dry matter and crude protein content in fish received treated date pits compared to the groups received untreated date pits. The inorganic matter contents were not affected by treatments.

Summary in Arabic.

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