Digestive tract health of greenlip abalone

Dietary inclusions of solvent extracted soybean meal and dehulled lupin meal are commonly used ingredients in abalone diets. Recent research has highlighted that the effect of both these ingredients have on the growth, feed utilisation and digestive tract of greenlip abalone is unknown.

This research project aims to improve our knowledge in this area.

Key methodology:

• Four graded levels of solvent extracted soybean meal (0, 10, 20 and 30%) and four graded levels of dehulled lupin meal (0, 10, 20 and 30%) will be investigated.
• Twenty post-weaned greenlip abalone (15-25 mm) will be weighed, measured and stocked into one of four replicate tanks treatment combination-1 (n = 8 treatments, n = 32 tanks).
• Abalone will be held at 22°C (optimal water temperature) and fed their respective diet to excess daily at 16:00 h. Uneaten feed will be collected the following day.
• At the conclusion of the study, abalone will weighed and measured to determine growth performance and feed conversion ratio.
• Additionally, four abalone per tank will be fixed in 10% seawater formalin, before gastrointestinal samples are sectioned and stained to determine the effect of dietary inclusions of solvent extracted soybean meal and dehulled lupin meal on the digestive tract health of greenlip abalone.
• Funding for sample analysis is provided by SARDI. Samples will be collected from a larger industry funded project.