Use of chicken feather meal fermented with Bacillus subtilis in diets to increase the digestive enzymes activity and nutrient digestibility of silver pompano Trachinotus blochii (Lacepede, 1801)

Background: Feather has the potential to be used as a fish feed ingredient because it has high protein content (80-85%), and is rich in amino acids arginine, leucine, isoleucine and valine. However, the protein consists mainly of keratin, which is classified as fiber that is difficult to digest. Therefore, to improve digestibility, the keratin protein is degraded using microbial Bacillus subtilis. This study aimed to determine the digestibility of fermented feather meal (FFM) in silver pompano ( Trachinotus blochii) diets and to observe the histological structure of their intestines after digestion. Methods: The method used was a one factor experiment with five treatments and three replications each, which were: diet without FFM, diet containing 10% FFM, 20%, 30% and 40%. The diets were given to juvenile silver pompano (with average body weight of 8.56 ± 0.18 g) and stocked in 15 similar 20-L plastic jars with 10 fish per jar in a density of 100 L capacity container. The experimental diets were given three times daily at approximately 8.00 AM, 12.00 PM and 5.00 PM to apparent satiation for 60 days. Results: The results showed that the use of FFM increased the activity of digestive enzymes (protease and lipase), but reduced the amylase activity of silver pompano, which was significantly different between treatments (P <0.05). Meanwhile, the diet containing 20% FFM produced the highest feed and protein, which are 37.05% and 67.24%, respectively. This was significantly different from other treatments (P <0.05), and was effectively absorbed by fish intestines. Conclusion: The addition of chicken feather meal fermented with Bacillus subtilis could increase the activity of protease and lipase enzymes and nutrient digestibility of silver pompano but not amylase activity.