Effect of replacing soybean meal with shrimp waste meal in the diets of growing turkeys on nutrient digestibility and metabolisable energy

Abstract Soybean meal (SBM), one of the main protein sources in turkey production is becoming expensive. Shrimp waste meal (SWM), a by-product of the shrimp industry is a good prospect as a cheaper alternative. It was hypothesised that Nigerian indigenous turkeys (NIT) should be able to digest and utilise SWM better than British United Turkeys (BUT) because of their hardy nature. A 56-day study was carried out to determine metabolisable energy and apparent nutrient digestibility of growing turkeys fed diets containing SWM. Four diets were formulated such that SBM in the control diet (diet 1) was substituted by SWM at 150, 300 and 450 g/kg (protein for protein) in diets 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Eighty (80) four-weeks-old male sex BUT and 80 NIT were allotted on weight equalisation into four dietary treatments replicated four times with five turkeys per replicate in a 2 × 4 factorial arrangement. The total faecal collection method was used for determining apparent and true nutrient digestibility and metabolisable energy values. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomised design and data collected were analysed using ANOVA with SAS package. At the starter phase, NIT recorded ( p < 0.05) higher values for dry matter (DM), Ether extract (EE), nitrogen-free extract (NFE), Apparent metabolisable energy corrected for nitrogen (AMEn) but lower true metabolisable energy corrected for nitrogen (TMEn). Turkeys fed SWM recorded higher ( p < 0.05) AMEn. At the grower phase, turkeys fed 300 g/kg SWM recorded higher ( p < 0.05) values for CF and ash. Ash and CP digestibility values were higher ( p < 0.05) in BUT ditto for TMEn. It was concluded that NIT could handle SWM better than BUT, however, only at the starter phase at 300 g/kg substitution for SBM.