Fish meal: Production and quality assessment foraqua feed formulation in Pakistan

In this study,18 fish meal processing units were surveyed in sindh and balochistan to investigate production status,chemical composition,and fish species being used for producing fish meal. the overall production of single processing unit ranged from 40 to 500 metric tonns per month. kampa industry (unit 1) was found to be the first largest contributor producing 100 metric tons in 24 h. the second largest producers of fish meal in this region were abdul baqi,ghulam hussain and kampa industry (unit 2) which produced 300 to 500 metric tons per month. proximate composition of fish meal samples collected from different units showed that protein contents were 50.51% - 61.26% and energy was determined as 4042.0 cal/g - 4558.0 cal/g. dry mater was calculated as 87.43% - 93.13% and fat was noted as 15.29% - 26.23%. ash was found to be 12.32%-18.32% and fiber remained as 7.52% - 13.12%. phosphorus was found as 0.21%-1.8%. in fish meal preparation,24 species belonging to different families were noted in which the most abundantly used species were sardine (dussumieria acuta),mullet (liza carinata,l. subviridis),herring (chirocentrus dorab),elongated sole (solia elongate),black fin sea bream (acanthopagrus berda),grunts (pomadasys hasta),croaker (otolithus ruber),silver sillago (sillago sihama),sea perch (lates calcarifer) and jaw fish (johnius goma). in majority of processing units,traditional methods were applied causing quality problem. finally,it was concluded that quality of fish meal and production in our region is suitable for fish feed formulation. but the processing technique should be improved to match international standard,and to avoid declining in production of fish meal strategic management of fisheries resources will be required. copyright 2017 zoological society of pakistan.