Nutritional Quality of Animal Polypeptide (Crayfish) Formulated Into Complementary Foods

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Figure 1 showed the growth rate and response to dietary intake of the experimental animals for 28 days, the growth response gave the highest result at 10% crayfish (dry powder) inclusion (diet 2). This were followed by 15% crayfish (diet 3), milk-based diet (diet 4), and 100% Carbohydrate (diet 1) respectively. Diets 2 promoted growth more than the animals fed with control diet, diet 2 gained more weights than control diet. It may be that diet 2 has complete amino profile when compared to other formulated diets. Some workers had previously reported that 10% crayfish diets inclusion with animal polypeptide source may result in balance diet and meet the estimated daily nutrient requirements for complementary foods, ^{[1, 3, 8, 9]}. Nitrogen retained and weight gained, was higher in 10% crayfish diet compared to 15% crayfish (animal inclusions), whereas 10% crayfish with less protein promoted growth than 15% inclusion. Researchers have demonstrated adequate nutrients intake, this may be because nutrient intake has reached optimum at 10% inclusion, hence, more than 10% animal protein inclusion may not be utilized by body, hence could lead to excess nutrient that is not need by body and may result in diet-related diseases’ ^{[8, 9, 10, 11, 13]}. However, diet 1, could not support growth, and found to decrease the weight of the animals in group 1. This may be due to the fact that the diet lacked adequate nutrient such as protein. It is however reported that cereals are deficient in essential amino acid, such as lysine and tryptophan, hence was not nutritionally adequate to promote growth and conformed to previous studies ^{[3, 11, 12]}.

Table 1 displays the chemical analysis (%) of the ingredients which including protein, moisture, fat, ash, crude fibre carbohydrates, Vitamin C mg/100g, Vitamin B1 mg/100g and caloric values. The ingredients were nutritional adequate to formulate a complementary food and meet the estimated daily nutrient requirements for complementary foods ^{[1, 13, 14]}.

Table 1. Chemical Composition (%) of the Ingredients

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Table 2. Average food consumption over the 28 days of the experimental period

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Table 2 highlights the average food consumption for over the 28 days of the experimental period in ascending other of 10% crayfish, 15% crayfish; milk based commercial diets and 100% carbohydrate (basal diets). This may be because of adequate nutrition, appropriate formulation of diets that affect amount of nutrient intake in quality and quantity, ^{[15, 16]}.

Table 3. The average nitrogen retained in various tissues of experimental animals

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Table 3 outlines the average nitrogen content retained in various organs of the animal experimental animals including the liver, kidney and tissue nitrogen are general reflection of dietary nitrogen content level. The average nitrogen retained in diets 2, 3, and 4 organs of experimental animals were similar but highest retention of nitrogen was found in experimental animals fed on diet 2 compared with the control, while the average nitrogen retained in diet 1 (non protein dietary) organs of animal experimental animals was lowest compared with diets 4 (milk based diet). It could be inferred that diets 2, 3, 4, have enough nutrients which could be retained by experimental animals muscle. This may be due to the fact that amino acid profile of all infant formulae diet are complete and that the diets can liberate more nitrogen that is sufficient to supply to the body organ, this is in agreement with previous findings ^{[3, 17, 18]}.

Table 4. Average weight in grams of various organs of the experimental animal

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