Methodological Aspects of Evaluating Nutritive Values of Fish Feed Ingredients

This project aims to investigate the methodological aspects of evaluating nutritive values of fish feed ingredients. Specifically, this projects aims to compare the accuracy of nutrient digestibility estimates between the multi-level assay and the single-level assay by examining influencing factors including type of basal diet, type of ingredients, and inclusion level of ingredients. Furthermore, this project will estimate true protein digestibility of ingredients by employing the linear regression approach and estimate bioavailability by conducting a slope ratio assay. Inference between true digestibility coefficients and bioavailability estimates will be made. In addition, this project will investigate and quantify the digestibility and utilization of different types and levels of dietary starches for omnivorous fish species. Finally, the information generated from the feeding trials will be used to develop mechanistic models to estimate protein digestibility and starch digestibility.