Research
Excess dietary cholesterol may have an adverse effect on growth performance of early post-larval Litopenaeus vannamei
1 Key Laboratory of Aquatic Product Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Science, Guangzhou, 510300, People's Republic of China
2 Nutrition Laboratory, Institute of Aquatic Economic Animals, School of Life Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China
Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology 2012, 3:19 doi:10.1186/2049-1891-3-19
Published: 25 June 2012Abstract
One experiment was conducted to determine the nutritive value of cholesterol for post-larval shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. Four isoenergetic and isonitrogenous diets supplemented with four levels of cholesterol (D1, D2, D3 and D4 with 0, 0.5%, 1% and 2% cholesterol, respectively) were fed to triplicate groups of L. vannamei shrimp (mean initial wet weight 0.8 mg) for 27 days. After the trial, shrimp fed the D1 diet had the best growth performance (final body weights: FBW; weight gain: WG; specific growth rate: SGR), while there was no significant difference between diet treatments with respect to survival. The whole body crude protein level in the shrimp decreased with the increase in dietary cholesterol levels, while the whole body crude lipid level in shrimps in the D4 diet treatment was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than in other diet treatments. Dietary analysis indicated that the D1 diet contained 0.92% cholesterol prior to supplementation, which may have satisfied the dietary cholesterol requirement of post-larval L. vannamei; excess dietary cholesterol may thus lead to adverse effects on the growth performance of post-larval shrimp.
