Increased levels of Herring Meal do not increase the digestibility of protien.

[mattrox]

http://www.aquacultu.../files/AC04.pdf

While cruising through this paper after an article on garlic, I found some interesting reading.This compares feeding fish a reference diet then adding herring meal (HM) at a rate of 10, 20 30, 40, 50%. ADC it the measure of digestability.

Composition

(g/100 g DM)

Diet

• Reference Diet HM10 HM20 HM30 HM40 HM50
  

• Protein 50.64 53.96 56.91 59.95 63.28 66.53
  

• Cr2O3 1.04 0.99 0.96 0.76 0.69 0.56
  

Feces

• Protein 12.67 14.80 17.15 19.66 21.05 21.39
  

• Cr2O3 5.05 5.13 5.35 4.51 4.14 3.17
  

• Protein ADC (%) 94.8 94.7 94.6 94.5 94.4 94.4
  

It is concluded that the incorporation level of herring meal into

the reference diet does not affect the protein ADC values in juvenile haddock diets and that the two commonly used equations for

calculating protein ADC result in the same values for highly digestible feed ingredients like herring meal.

- My comment While herring meal is a quality source of protein having it as opposed to other protein sources isn't as important as it is made out to be, as long as there is protien in the diet (from aquatic sources). And a diet too high in protein is a waste.

[Ducksta]

Same as in humans really. Over supply of protein in the body just ends up as waste.

I believe in a resting human (ie. someone who hasn't had a strenuous workout, and doesn't have a lot of muscle repair occurring inside the body) the amount of protein you actually process is something like 20grams.

It is why atkins diets work to drop weight, bodies can't store protein, so anything not immediately used is flushed right on through.

[mattrox]

I found it really interesting with respect to the conversation about protien sources in fish foods. It seems the total protein content is more important than protein source. Not disputing that herring meal is an outstanding protein source, but it's importance may be over emphasised.