Mussel meal as a replacement for fish meal in feeds for organic poultry – a pilot short-term study

Abstract

A trial was performed to evaluate effects of mussel meal in laying hen diets. The study included 96 hens (Lohmann Selected Leghorn). Four diets with 0, 3, 6 or 9% inclusion level of mussel meal, replacing the same quantities of fish meal, were included. At 26 weeks of age, five eggs from each treatment were collected and analysed for internal egg quality. The different contents of mussel meal had no significant effect on production performance or egg quality parameters except from laying percentage and egg yolk pigmentation. Mussel meal concentration up to 6% tended to improve laying percentage compared to the 0% group. Yolk pigmentation increased significantly with increasing levels of mussel meal. There were no differences between the different diets in fatty acid pattern regarding docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) and linolenic acid in the egg yolk. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) decreased significantly when fishmeal was replaced by mussel meal.

Keywords:

• Amino acids
• laying hens
• protein source
• organic production
• mussel meal

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank The Swedish Research Council for Environmental, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning for financial support. The project is performed in co-operation with Odd Lindahl and Sven Kollberg at Kristineberg Marine Research Station who have supported the experiment with the mussel meal.