Elsevier

Aquaculture

Volumes 356–357, 1 August 2012, Pages 105-115
Aquaculture

Effects of fish size and diet adaptation on growth performances and nitrogen utilization of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss W.) juveniles given diets based on free and/or protein-bound amino acids

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2012.05.030Get rights and content

Abstract

The quality of dietary protein is an important factor influencing fish growth. It is usually assessed by amino acid (AA) composition, protein digestibility and protein utilization efficiency. Here it was investigated with rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss W.) juveniles 1) if the molecular form of the ingested nitrogen (free (F) AA, peptides or proteins) may also affect the dietary protein quality; 2) if this possible influence may be affected by juvenile size and adaptation to the diet; and 3) what is the optimum synthetic FAA to protein ratio. Two experiments were carried out at 15 °C (3 tanks/treatment) in which 1050 small juveniles (0.70 g) and 450 large juveniles (2.85 g) were randomly assigned to fifteen 15 l-tanks (70 fish/tank) and to fifteen 45 l-tanks (30 fish/tank), respectively. In both experiments, fish were fed twice a day to satiation for 9, 17 and 25 feeding days (3 periods) five isoenergetic and isonitrogenous (412 g crude protein/kg dry matter (DM)) diets containing graded levels of coated FAA, replacing 0, 25, 50, 75 or 100% (D0–D100) of the cod muscle meal, an intact protein. Compared to D0, growth rate (DGC, % per day) and feed intake (g DM/kg0.75 per day) were significantly reduced only for small juveniles and large juveniles fed diets containing at least 50 and 75% of FAA, respectively. Protein deposition (g/kg0.75 per day) was not significantly reduced for juveniles fed diets D25–D50, but well for juveniles fed diets D75–D100. The decrease of growth rate and protein deposition at FAA inclusion rate below 75% was largely explained by a reduction of voluntary feed intake while nitrogen retention efficiency was significantly reduced only for diet D100. The maximum FAA level that still ensured reasonable growth (85% of maximum) was 65%, at both juvenile sizes, after an adaptation period of 17 days. Larger juveniles tolerated higher FAA dietary levels than smaller juveniles, indicating ontogeny-related changes in FAA utilization efficiencies. Finally fish accustomed to FAA-rich diets were able to tolerate higher FAA dietary levels but the maximum FAA inclusion level was modulated by fish size. In conclusion, here we show that the dietary protein quality is dependent of the molecular form of the ingested nitrogen in rainbow trout juveniles and that this quality is modulated by the ratio of synthetic FAA to protein (or FAA inclusion rate), the adaptation of the fish to the diet and the fish size.

Highlights

► Dietary protein quality depends of the molecular form of the nitrogen in trout. ► This quality is modulated by the ratio of free to protein-bound amino acids. ► Free amino acid utilization depends of juvenile size and diet adaptation. ► Larger fish can tolerated higher free amino acids in their diet than smaller ones. ► Accustomed fish can tolerate higher level of free amino acids in their diet.

Introduction

The quality of dietary protein is an important factor influencing the growth performance of a fish. Dietary protein quality is usually assessed by amino acid (AA) composition, protein digestibility and protein utilization efficiency. Some observations have shown that the molecular form of the ingested nitrogen (free (F) AA, peptides or proteins) affects growth rate, AA absorption kinetics, the degree of whole-body AA oxidation and utilization for protein synthesis in fish as well as in mammals (Collin-Vidal et al., 1994, Dabrowski et al., 2003, Daenzer et al., 2001, Metges et al., 2000, Terjesen et al., 2006, Zhang et al., 2006), raising the question as to whether this variable may also affect protein quality. This question is of great economical and environmental importance in the context of fishmeal shortage, particularly when fishmeal is replaced by AA-deficient proteins that need to be supplemented with free (F) indispensable (I) AA, in order to meet the requirements of the targeted fish species (Cheng et al., 2003, Davies and Morris, 1997, Nang Thu et al., 2007, Nang Thu et al., 2009, National Research Council (NRC), 2011, Watanabe et al., 1997).

Several authors have attempted to define the AA requirements for different fish species (Wilson, 2003). However, in many instances, the observed differences between studies exceeded credibility (Dabrowski and Guderley, 2002). For instance, tryptophane requirements of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) ranged from 0.5 to 1.4% and methionine requirements in salmonids were estimated from 2.2% in rainbow trout to 4.0% in chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) (Akiyama et al., 1997). Several factors have been proposed to explain these large variations, being either nutritional or methodological (Bodin et al., 2007, Bodin et al., 2009, Rollin et al., 2003a). According to Dabrowski and Guderley (2002), the questionable formulation of test diets to secure acceptability and maximize growth of fish is the single, most important factor resulting in discrepancies observed in published IAA requirements in fish. Diet formulation for IAA requirement are based entirely, or in variable proportions, on synthetic FAA (Bureau and Encarnação, 2006, Dabrowski and Guderley, 2002). This approach, presuming that these FAA are able to sustain close to optimal growth and are utilized with the same efficiency as the AA derived from dietary proteins, has been questioned by several authors (Dabrowski and Guderley, 2002, Nolles et al., 2008, Rollin, 1999). Therefore, it seems that more studies are required to test this hypothesis.

In 1970, Aoe and colleagues started a still ongoing discussion as to whether the nutritional value of FAA and protein of similar AA composition in the diet of rainbow trout is equivalent (Abboudi et al., 2006, Aoe et al., 1970, Barroso et al., 1999, Cowey, 1992, Cowey, 1994, Cowey and Luquet, 1983, Cowey and Walton, 1988, Dabrowski and Guderley, 2002, Dabrowski et al., 2003, Espe and Njaa, 1991, Kim et al., 1991, Rodehutscord et al., 1995, Rollin et al., 2003a, Rollin et al., 2006, Terjesen et al., 2006). Some authors concluded that FAA can replace protein-bound AA in diets of rainbow trout (Murai, 1992, Rodehutscord et al., 1995) while other obtained sometimes dramatically reduced growth performances when intact protein sources were substituted by FAA mixtures equivalent to their AA composition (Barroso et al., 1999, Cowey and Luquet, 1983, Cowey and Walton, 1988, Dabrowski et al., 2003, Terjesen et al., 2006). These contrasting results could possibly be related to differences of dietary FAA level, fish size and development stage as well as diet adaptation to these FAA-rich diets. Here we propose to investigate the effect of those three variables and to optimize the ratio of FAA to protein in experimental diets aimed at examining requirements for individual AA in rainbow trout juveniles.

The aim of this work was to study the effect of total or partial replacement of cod muscle meal protein, essentially composed of protein-bound AA, by mixtures of FAA of equivalent AA composition on growth performances and nitrogen deposition and utilization in rainbow trout at two juvenile sizes during three feeding periods. The maximum substitution levels that still support reasonable growth or nitrogen utilization efficiency was evaluated for both juvenile sizes at each period.

Section snippets

Experimental diets

Five isonitrogenous (64 g N/kg DM) and isoenergetic (± 18.75 MJ kg/DM) diets (Table 1) were formulated. The dietary N was supplied by gelatin and by cod muscle meal and/or FAA. The cod muscle meal, obtained from a commercial source (Toro Food Division, Rieber and Søn AS, Bergen, Norway), was obtained by freeze-drying muscle of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Its nitrogen content is high (14.7% DM) and was reported earlier to be highly digestible (apparent digestibility of 94.5%) and to provoke high

Growth performances and voluntary feed intake

During the feeding trial, all diets were well accepted by the fish. Mean mortality rate was less than 0.02% per day and was not related to dietary treatments.

Fig. 1A shows the responses for the whole experimental duration of the daily growth coefficient (DGC, % per day) to dietary treatments. Significant differences were observed between diets D0 and D50, D50 and D75 for the larger juveniles and between diets D75 and D100 for both sizes of juvenile. Body weight gain (g/fish) was reduced by 71%

Discussion

The nutritional value of FAA as compared to protein-bound AA is still controversial in fish nutrition for many species (for a review, see Dabrowski and Guderley, 2002) and rainbow trout is not an exception. Some authors concluded that FAA can replace protein-bound AA in experimental diets of rainbow trout (Kim, 1997, Kim et al., 1991, Rodehutscord et al., 1995) while others concluded to sometimes dramatically inferior performances for FAA-rich diets (Aoe et al., 1970, Barroso et al., 1999,

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Marc Michotte for expert technical assistance and the Université catholique de Louvain for funding. The authors wish to thank the two referees for their constructive comments that improved the present manuscript.

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