Elsevier

Aquaculture

Volume 220, Issues 1–4, 14 April 2003, Pages 749-767
Aquaculture

Effects of dietary amino acid profile on growth performance, key metabolic enzymes and somatotropic axis responsiveness of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0044-8486(02)00654-3Get rights and content

Abstract

Juvenile gilthead sea bream were fed to visual satiety with isonitrogenous diets based on fish meal and different plant ingredients (33–35% replacement) supplemented with free amino acids to meet the desired indispensable amino acid (IAA) profile and dispensable amino acid (DAA) content. In diets M and WB, IAA profile and DAA content resemble that of the muscle or whole body, respectively. In diets MGlu and WBGlu, DAA content was increased by adding l-glutamic acid (Glu) and thus the IAA/DAA ratio varied from 1.13 (diet M) to 0.80 (diet WBGlu). Growth rates were not significantly different among experimental groups, but feed conversion ratio and nitrogen retention were impaired by the decrease of dietary IAA/DAA ratio. Postprandial ammonia excretion increased with the increase of dietary DAA content irrespective of IAA profile. Conversely, hepatic activity of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) was lower in fish fed diet WBGlu than in fish fed diet M. Hepatic growth hormone (GH) binding was not significantly affected by the dietary treatment, but circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and GH were, respectively, down- and up-regulated in fish fed diet WBGlu, which suggests some defect in the transmission of GH receptor signal. Fat retention and hepatic activities of lipogenic enzymes (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, G6PD; malic enzyme, ME) were decreased in fish fed diet MGlu. Key metabolic enzymes of hepatic glycolysis (glucokinase, GK) and gluconeogenesis (phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, PEPCK) were also altered in this group of fish. Since soybean meal concentration was highest in diet MGlu, results on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism can be primarily attributed to this component of the diet. In contrast, data on growth performance, ammonia excretion and GH axis mainly reflect changes in the dietary amino acid profile, which reveals that a muscle IAA profile and a high IAA/DAA ratio are important in feeds for gilthead sea bream.

Introduction

Formulated feeds for intensively reared carnivorous fish generally contain 40–50% protein Wilson and Halver, 1986, National Research Council (NRC), 1993, Kaushik, 1995, most of which is supplied by fish meal. However, while the annual production of fish meal is stabilised at 6–7 million tonnes, aquaculture is expanding at a rate of 11% per year (Tidwell and Allan, 2001). This growth cannot be supported by only fish-meal-based diets, and attention has been directed towards the incorporation of plant protein sources in feeds of even carnivorous fish, such as rainbow trout Kaushik et al., 1995, Teskeredzic et al., 1995, Vielma et al., 2000, chinook salmon (Bureau et al., 1998), Atlantic salmon (Storebakken et al., 2000), gilthead sea bream Robaina et al., 1995, Robaina et al., 1998, Alarcón et al., 1999, European sea bass (Gouveia and Davies, 1998), striped bass (Gallagher, 1994), Japanese flounder (Kikuchi, 1999) and turbot (Burel et al., 2000).

Plant raw materials contain, however, a wide variety of antinutritional factors that affect health and interfere with intermediary metabolism Kaushik, 1990, Tacon, 1997, Clarke and Wiseman, 2000b, Francis et al., 2001. Moreover, plant proteins are limiting in one or more IAAs Kaushik, 1990, National Research Council (NRC), 1993, Clarke and Wiseman, 2000a, and fish feeds containing plant protein ingredients must be formulated to correct IAA deficiencies or imbalances. This fact seems to be especially relevant for marine teleosts that generally exhibit a higher protein requirement than their freshwater counterparts (Kaushik, 1995). Thus, more attention has been focused on the beneficial effects of amino acid supplementation on growth performance, but the possible consequences of imbalances of both IAA and DAA on metabolic and endocrine parameters are little known in teleosts. Using ingredients commonly used in aquafeeds, we studied in the present work the combined effect of dietary IAA profile and DAA content on growth performance, intermediary metabolism and endocrine growth markers (somatotropic axis) of gilthead sea bream, a major aquaculture species in the Mediterranean area.

Section snippets

Animals

Juvenile gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) were obtained from a Spanish fish farm (Tina Menor, Santander, Spain). Fish were acclimated to laboratory conditions for 20 days before being randomly distributed into experimental tanks of 500-l capacity.

Diets

Four isoproteic (crude protein: 52% of dry matter, DM) and isoenergetic (22 kJ/g DM) diets based on fish meal and plant ingredients (33–35% replacement) supplemented with free amino acids were formulated. In M and WB diets, IAA profile and DAA

Results

Juvenile gilthead sea bream grew from 14–15 g to 70–75 g over the course of the 12-week growth trial (Table 3). Growth rates did not vary significantly among fish groups, although the tendency was a reduction in growth rates with the increase of dietary DAA content irrespective of IAA profile. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) and nitrogen retention were significantly improved in fish fed diet M in comparison to fish fed diet WBGlu. Whole body lipid content was slightly lower in fish fed diet MGlu,

Discussion

Available data show that currently about 30% to 50% of fish meal can be replaced successfully by plant protein sources in fish feeds (Francis et al., 2001). There are, however, important fish species differences and some studies reveal that a total substitution is possible at least in rainbow trout Kaushik et al., 1995, Watanabe et al., 1998, whereas data on gilthead sea bream are not so conclusive Robaina et al., 1995, Robaina et al., 1998. Since plant proteins are deficient in one or more

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by EU (Q5RS-2000-30068; PEPPA). J.A.C.-G. was the recipient of a research contract from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologı́a. M.M. was the recipient of a research grant from the Diputación Provincial de Castellón. S.K. is the recipient of a scholarship from the French Ministry of Research.

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