Why Farmers Opt for Fish Meal Alternatives Despite Fish Meal’s Superiority Over Meat and Bone Meal？

In 2026, local authorities nationwide have ramped up full closed-loop traceability supervision over the rendering of deceased livestock and poultry.The supply chains for raw materials and production workflows of meat and bone meal are facing the strictest regulatory restrictions ever recorded.Many livestock farms and feed mills have observed steadily mounting risks linked to conventional meat and bone meal applications.By contrast, fish meal delivers consistent nutrition and superior biosecurity performance,establishing itself as a far more reliable core animal protein feedstock — and the practical value disparity between the two protein sources keeps widening.

From a nutritional standpoint, fish meal is the recognized benchmark for high-quality animal protein.Premium fish meal boasts a crude protein content of 60%–70% and contains nearly double the levels of essential amino acids—such as lysine and methionine—found in meat and bone meal; its balanced amino acid profile ensures high digestibility and superior feed conversion efficiency.By comparison, conventional meat and bone meal merely contains 40%–55% protein alongside high calcium and ash fractions,with prominent shortages of critical limiting amino acids. Extra amino acid supplements are mandatory when formulating feeds with meat and bone meal,which inevitably pushes up feed formula and breeding expenses. Furthermore,fish meal naturally contains unsaturated fatty acids and unidentified growth factors that significantly boost the survival rates of young livestock and fish fry—advantages that meat and bone meal cannot match.

Biosafety represents a critical dividing line between the two. Meat and bone meal is manufactured from slaughterhouse by-products and the remains of diseased or dead livestock and poultry; if sterilization is incomplete,it is highly susceptible to contamination with pathogens such as Salmonella. Furthermore,relevant regulations impose explicit restrictions on adding terrestrial animal protein to ruminant feeds,with strict red lines governing cross-provincial circulation and feed formulation.Any unapproved application will trigger risks of epidemic spread and administrative penalties. On the contrast,fish meal is processed from marine fishery by-products, posing no risk of cross-species disease transmission.Subject to unified quality inspection standards,it can be safely incorporated into feeds for all livestock and aquaculture species without feed-type restrictions, bringing much lower compliance barriers for producers.

Fish meal also holds distinct advantages regarding cost and supply stability. The production capacity for compliant meat and bone meal is constrained by the availability of harmless treatment facilities and raw material recovery channels;furthermore, its quality fluctuates significantly, resulting in marked nutritional disparities between batches.In contrast, fish meal boasts a mature industrial manufacturing chain with fully standardized quality control.Long-term feeding application cuts disease prevalence and shortens breeding cycles, delivering superior comprehensive breeding profitability.For this reason, many feed companies are gradually reducing the proportion of meat and bone meal in their formulations and adopting fish meal as their primary animal protein source to mitigate risks associated with both safety and quality.

When evaluated across the dimensions of nutrition, safety, and long-term benefits, fish meal surpasses meat and bone meal in many respects,making it a preferred protein source for achieving stable efficiency gains in large-scale livestock farming.Chengzhu Group specializes in the R&D and manufacturing of processing equipment for the feed industry.Leveraging high-temperature sterilization and precision processing technologies, the company facilitates the standardized handling of livestock and poultry by-products,achieving a balance between resource recycling and biosecurity management.