Growth and whole-body proximate composition of Oreochromis niloticus Nile tilapia fed pea meal: A systematic review and meta-analysis

One of the most widely cultivated species in the aquaculture sector is the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). However, the rising price of fishmeal has a huge impact on its market value. Proteins derived from plants have been used to address the issue. In this study, systematic review and meta-analysis were used to quantitatively analyze the whole-body composition and growth of Nile tilapia fed pea meal. Based on the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis methods, the literature review and paper selection were completed. Meta-analysis was performed on the data from peer-reviewed studies that met the inclusion screening requirements, namely: tilapia development stage, standard error reporting, feeding period, lack of nutritional supplements, and crude protein levels. The control diet outperformed the plant-based diets according to the result, in which growth and feed utilization characteristics were significantly different (P < 0.05). All except the final weight were significantly better (P < 0.05) in tilapia fed control compared to tilapia fed pea treatment. Additionally, the pooled estimate of whole-body composition of fish fed a diet based on pea meal was not substantially different from that of fish fed a diet based on fishmeal (P > 0.05). Due to large and statistically significant I2 values, the feeding interval, crude protein concentration, fish development stage, and dietary pea meal inclusions were all examined using meta-regression analysis to identify the sources of heterogeneity. Not all co-variates explained the heterogeneity except for the feeding period and crude protein % in some of the parameters. The minimum quantities of dietary pea meal needed for best Nile tilapia performance in terms of growth, feed utilization, and whole-body composition were found to be 4.9, 488.6, and 210.3 g kg−1, respectively.