Fish Nutrition & Feed Technology

Unit 13 - Non-conventional feed ingredients and anti-nutritional factors

13.6.Anti-nutritional Factors
The utilization of non-conventional feedstuffs of plant origin had been limited as a result of the presence of antinutitional factors like alkaloids, glycosides, oxalic acids, phytates, protease inhibitors, haematoglutinin, saponegin, momosine, cyanoglycosides, linamarin etc., to mention a few despite their nutrient values and low cost implications. These anti-nutritional factors retard growth and other physiological activities at higher inclusion levels. Nearly all sources of plant protein possess associated factors which must be eliminated by special processing techniques to render them to possess maximum nutritional value.

The following table gives some of the compounds occurring in feedstuffs that are known and/or suspended of causing physiological abnormalities or otherwise impairing the growth of fish