Direct substitution of fishmeal with bioprocessed soybean meal in brown trout diets

This 121-day experiment evaluated the rearing performance of juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta; initial weight 56.1±1.6 g, length 167.2±1.4 mm, mean ±SE) fed one of four isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets (46% protein, 16% lipid). Fishmeal, the primary protein source for the reference diet, was compared to diets where bioprocessed soybean meal directly replaced approximately 60, 80, or 100% of the dietary fishmeal. At the end of the experiment there were no significant differences in gain, percent gain, food fed, feed conversion ratio, nor specific growth rate among any of the dietary treatments.  Gains for the 0, 60, 80, and 100% treatments were 304.6 ± 40.3 g, 215.4±82.6 g, 199.0±39.4 g, and 218.1±37.0 g, respectively.  There were also no significant differences observed in intestinal morphology, relative fin lengths, viscerosomatic index, hepatosomatic index, or splenosomatic index among the dietary treatments. Based on these results, bioprocessed soybean meal may be able to replace 100% of the dietary fishmeal in juvenile brown trout diets without any deleterious effects.