CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF VARIOUS ADDITIVES OF ANIMAL ORIGIN ON THE GROWTH OF HYBRID CLARIAS FRY (MALE CLARIAS GARIEPINUS X FEMALE CLARIAS ANGUILLARIS)

Aquaculture in Senegal faces constraints such as the high cost of fish feed, representing a brake on the sectors development. In thisstudy, alternative local meals cow blood meal chicken viscera meal and black soldier fly larvae meal were used as feed additives for hybrid fry of Clariasanguillarisand Clariasgariepinus. Four experimental diets R1, R2, R3 and R4 were formulated, in addition to an industrial control diet (R0), to assess their effects on growth, feed efficiency and production cost. 300 fry of initial mean weight of 1.56 g were distributed in 15 tanks of 50 liters. After 45 days of experimentation, the best zootechnical performance was obtained with diet R4, containing the combination of the three additives. This diet showed a relative mean weight gain (RMWG) of 521.58% and a feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 1.44, similar to the control diet. Economically, the R4 diet had the lowest feed cost of 666.41 FCFA/kg and fish cost of 958.94 FCFA/kg, while maintaining a high survival rate (95%). These results demonstrate that the use of local ingredients as additives is a sustainable and cost-effective alternative for improving the productivity and competitiveness of aquaculture in Senegal.