Abstract
ABSTRACT For some fish species, dietary taurine supplementation has been proven necessary in feeds with considerable utilization of vegetable proteins to substitute fishmeal. Pirarucu, Arapaima gigas feeds mainly on taurine-rich animal items in nature, therefore this study aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary taurine supplementation (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 3%) on the growth and blood physiological parameters of juvenile pirarucu. A commercial feed was utilized as the basal diet for the experimental diets. Three hundred fish (20.8 ± 2.3 g) were randomly distributed in 15 tanks and fed for 28 days. At the end of the trial, dietary taurine supplementation did not affect fish growth, feed consumption and feed efficiency. The original amounts of taurine (0.18%) and methionine (1.13%) in the commercial feed (0% taurine diet) apparently sufficed to promote adequate pirarucu growth, with no variation noted in the main blood physiological parameters. Further studies to assess whether taurine is conditionally essential for the pirarucu fed methionine-deficient diets are needed to elucidate the functionality of this nutrient for the studied species.
Highlights
Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is one of the end products of sulfur amino acids metabolism that is synthesized from methionine via cysteine
Dietary taurine supplementation has been proven necessary in feeds with considerable utilization of vegetable proteins to substitute fishmeal
Arapaima gigas feeds mainly on taurine-rich animal items in nature, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary taurine supplementation (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 3%) on the growth and blood physiological parameters of juvenile pirarucu
Summary
Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is one of the end products of sulfur amino acids metabolism that is synthesized from methionine via cysteine. While the natural diet of pirarucu contains taurine-rich food items, commercial feeds employed in pirarucu farming are formulated generically for carnivorous fish and not for the species’ nutrient requirements, having a varied and seasonal combination of animal and plant ingredients (Cyrino et al 2010). Considering this fact and the higher level of taurine in wild pirarucu muscle in comparison to farmed pirarucu, studies that evaluate the function of this nutrient for the species are necessary. We evaluated the effect of taurine supplementation in a commercial diet on the growth and blood physiological parameters of juvenile pirarucu
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