Formulation of Feed Pellet with MD2 Pineapple Peel Inclusion as Potential Prebiotic for Local Red Hybrid Tilapia Fish, Oreochromis Niloticus

Abstract

Fruit waste such as pineapple peel is cost-effective, halal and can be applied as feed additives for the value-added feed. Unrestrained use of antibiotics to maintain the health of aquaculture has implicated resistance to pathogenic aquaculture bacteria towards the antibiotics and somehow leaking into the food chain. Therefore, incorporating prebiotics in aquaculture as feed additives could be a harmless and better option to promote aquaculture well-being. The aim of this study is to formulate fish feed for Red Hybrid tilapia, with the inclusion of 5% MD2 pineapple peel (PAP) as a prebiotic supplement and to evaluate the nutritional diet and physical characteristics of the pellet. The tilapia fish diet contains soybean meal, fish meal, corn, corn gluten meal, casava tuber meal, palm oil, mineral premix, vitamins, and MD2 pineapple peel. The formulation comprises calculated values of digestible energy;14MJ/kg and 32%digestible protein. The results for moisture content, bulk density, floatability, expansion ratio and hardness were 25.06%, 385.28kg/m³, 97%, 1.09 and 3.65 respectively. It can be concluded that the formulated pellet was comparable to the commercial feed, Starfeed brand.