Development of a reference diet for use in indispensable amino acid
requirement studies of gilthead seabream Sparus aurata L.
P.A.
Marcouli, M.N. Alexis, A. Andriopoulou, J. Iliopoulou-Georgudaki-2004
Aquaculture
Nutrition,
10(5): 335-344
Abstract:
The
development of a test diet supporting good fish growth to be used in
gilthead seabream indispensable amino acid (IAA) requirement studies based
on dose - response
relationship was the objective of the present study. Four isonitrogenous
diets, one serving as control (diet C) based on fish meal LT, and three
others in which the fish meal component was reduced to 45% and the rest of
the nitrogen was provided by mixtures of crystalline AA were formulated.
Diet S resembled the whole body IAA profile of wild seabream. Diet D was
made deficient in all IAA and a 10% excess of IAA compared with diet S was
used in diet E. Triplicate groups of fish were fed the diets to satiation
for 6 weeks. Growth parameters and nutrient utilization efficiencies
among diets C and S were similar, while excessive supplementation of IAA
negatively affected most of them, compared with the control. Whole body
composition was differentiated in relation to the diet fed. No significant
differences were observed among groups fed the control and diet S. As shown
by the results, the presence of crystalline AA in diet S does not
significantly affect growth, and could therefore serve as control diet in
IAA requirement studies of gilthead seabream.
(Department
of Biology, Section of Animal Biology, University of Patras, GR 26 500
Patras, Greece. E-mail: christol@tee.gr)