Abstract

BERMUDEZ, A; MUNOZ-RAMIREZ, A. P  and  WILLS, G. A. EVALUATION OF AN ORGANIC FEEDING SYSTEM ON THE PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF NILE TILAPIA (Oreochromis niloticus) IN EARTHEN PONDS. Rev. Med. Vet. Zoot. [online]. 2012, vol.59, n.3, pp.165-175. ISSN 0120-2952.

It was evaluated the effect of a feeding system that included formulated diets with organic alternative resources and different levels of organic fertilization on animal production evaluation parameters in fish farmed in earthen ponds. 1,324 juvenile Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) with initial weight of 161.9 ± 7.0 g, male manually sexed without hormonal reversal were used. It was used a completely randomized design with three treatments and three replicates, randomly distributed in 9 earthen ponds of 200 m² each. The husbandry management was under the Naturland standards for organic aquaculture. During 180 days fish were fed diets (growth: 27% CP and 4,120 cal/g GE; finish: 21% CP and 4,200 cal/g GE) formulated using resources from certified organic agricultural production. Were handled without fertilizer control and two different levels of organic chicken manure fertilization (T1: intensive fertilization with 5g/m²/day; T2: periodically fertilization with 14g/m²/week and T3: no fertilization). The effect of treatments was evaluated on: daily weight gain, apparent feed conversion, specific growth rate, fillet yield, viscerosomatic, hepatosomatic and visceral fat index, protein efficiency ratio, protein production value and energy retention efficiency. There were not significant differences in the variables evaluated (p<0,05). Results obtained suggest that it is possible to implement an organic feeding system to be a productive alternative that able to maintain production parameters approximate to that reported to conventional production, with potential to position the final product markets to be sustainable differential extraction.

Keywords : organic aquaculture; fish feeding; fertilization of ponds; Oreochromis niloticus.

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