Marine feed ingredients derived from cephalopods (e.g., squid) and crustaceans (e.g., krill) are commercially used to improve the palatability of shrimp diets. Increase in global demand for shrimps has resulted in overfishing of these marine organisms and is a matter of concern. Insect protein hydrolysate could be a sustainable alternative for the possible replacement of these marine feed ingredients. During this study, four formulations: diet A (control: not containing any palatability enhancer), diet B (containing squid meal and krill oil), diet C (containing 1% insect protein hydrolysate), and diet D (containing 2% insect protein hydrolysate) were tested for (1) time required by first subject to begin feeding (time to strike) and (2) palatability in Litopenaeus vannamei. Additionally, the chemical composition of all four diet formulations was also analyzed. Results indicate that all diets had similar crude composition. The major essential amino acids in all diets were leucine and lysine, whereas eicosapentaenoic acid was the major omega-3 fatty acid in all diets. There were no significant differences between the mean time to strike for all the tested formulations. Palatability of tested formulations was found in the following order: diet D > diet C > diet B = diet A (p < 0.05), indicating that addition of squid meal and krill oil has no effect on palatability in comparison to control, whereas inclusion of insect protein hydrolysates significantly improves the palatability of formulations. Palatability enhancement potential of insect protein hydrolysate could be attributed to the high free amino acid content and water solubility in comparison to squid meal.
Keywords: Litopenaeus vannamei; free amino acids; insect; palatability; protein hydrolysate; short chain peptides.