EVALUATION OF LEGUMINOUS SEED MEALS AND LEAF MEALS AS PLANT PROTEIN-SOURCES IN DIETS FOR JUVENILE PENAEUS-INDICUS

The potential of locally available legumes (white cowpea, Vigna unguic ulata, and green mungbean, Vigna radiata) and leaf meals (papaya, Cari ca papaya, and cassava, Manihut esculenta) in combination with defatte d soybean meal as protein sources was evaluated in juvenile Penaeus in dicus. The feedstuffs were included in practical diets for P. indicus, replacing 9% of the protein in the basal diet. Juvenile P. indicus (m ean initial weight 0.08+/-0.01 g) were fed the practical diets for 61 days. Shrimp fed the control diet had the highest weight gain and spec ific growth rate, which did not significantly differ (p>0.05) from tho se of shrimp fed white cowpea meal, papaya leaf meal and cassava leaf meal. Survival of the control shrimp was significantly higher (p<0.05) than that of shrimp fed cassava and papaya leaf meals but comparable to that of shrimp fed white cowpea meal. The growth of shrimp given gr een mungbean meal was comparable to that of shrimp fed papaya leaf mea l, however the shrimp fed mungbean meal had the lowest survival. The a pparent protein digestibility (APD) of white cowpea meal (87%) was sig nificantly higher (p<0.05) than that of the control (82%) and cassava leaf meal (77%) based diets. However, the APD of the white cowpea meal based diet was comparable to those of the papaya leaf meal and green mungbean meal based diets. Results suggest that, besides digestibility , other factors such as the amino acid balance of the diet and the amo unt of anti-nutritional factors may influence the growth and survival of P. indicus.