Quality Improvement of Reduced-Salt, Phosphate-Free Fish Patties from Processed By-Products of Nile Tilapia Using Textural Additives and Bioactive Rice Bran Compounds

Optimizing rice-fish co-culture: Investigating the impact of rice spacing density on biochemical profiles and production of genetically modified tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) and Cyprinus carpio

Rice fish co-culture synergistically boosts food production, resulting in numerous advantages across the environmental, social, and financial domains. A study was conducted to investigate the effects of three different rice spacing densities, rice high density (RHD) 9inch×12inch, rice medium density (RMD) 12inch × 12inch, rice low density (RLD) 15inch×12inchon both rice and fish. Various parameters were assessed to evaluate the performance of the co-culture system, including water quality, growth parameters, muscle quality, soil characteristics, rice stem characteristics, and rice yield parameters. When comparing the species, it was observed that GMT (Genetically Male Tilapia) demonstrated superior weight gain (303.13g vs 296.41g) and specific growth rate (1.16 vs 1.15). Regarding the proximate composition, results showed that RMD had the highest crude protein and fat content compared to RLD and RHD. GMT also exhibited greater crude protein and fat content than Cyprinus carpio, with RMD showing the highest values. Treatment groups significantly influenced the amino acid profile of experimental species, with RMD exhibiting the highest values. GMT showed significantly higher levels of essential, non-essential, half-essential, and umami amino acids compared to Cyprinus carpio. The interaction between RMD and GMT further demonstrated significant differences in various amino acid categories with RMD. A non-significant difference was observed among the treatments regarding soil biochemical characteristics. Regarding the rice stem characters, the height of the plant, panicle length, and stem length of rice were found to be comparable in the RMD and RLD groups however, significantly higher in RHD. Regarding rice yield parameters, no significant differences were observed among the other treatment groups, except for yield per hectare (yield/ha), which was significantly higher in the RHD group compared to RMD and RLD. Additionally, 1000-grain weight and panicle number (ears per hill) were significantly higher in the RLD treatment than in the other treatments. In conclusion, our findings indicate that the RMD treatment consistently yielded superior results compared to RLD and RHD. Furthermore, within the rice-fish co-culture system, GMT proved to be a more competent species compared to Cyprinus carpio. The study provides data to understand the interactions between rice spacing density, fish growth and overall productivity can guide the development of sustainable and profitable rice-fish co-culture systems.

The Interaction of Dried Distillers Grains With Solubles (DDGS) Type and Level on Growth Performance, Health, Texture, and Muscle-Related Gene Expression in Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus)

The aim of this study was to estimate the possible synergetic effects of the two levels of dietary dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) from different sources (US-imported and native) on the growth, health status, muscle texture, and muscle growth-related gene expression of juvenile grass carp. Four treatments of fish were fed with 4 isonitrogenous diets, namely, native DDGS20, native DDGS30, US-imported DDGS20, and US-imported DDGS30 for 60 days. The US-imported DDGS30 group showed the better growth and feed efficiency. Additionally, we observed a significant increase in hepatopancreatic total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) in native DDGS groups. Moreover, raw muscle collagen increases considerably in the US-imported DDGS30 compared with the native DDGS30 group. In comparison with the native DDGS groups, the US-imported DDGS groups showed significantly decrease in all textural properties and fiber density, while increased fiber diameter. Dietary native DDGS inclusion significantly showed the upregulation of myog, myhc, and fgf6a expression in muscle, while the downregulation of the expression of myod and myf5. Overall, US-imported DDGS30 had a beneficial influence on growth via regulating genes involved in myogenesis and hypertrophy, the formation of collagen, but had negative impacts on antioxidant capacity and cooked muscle texture.