Effects of dietary vitamin C on growth, flesh quality and antioxidant capacity of juvenile golden pompanoTrachinotus ovatus

Abstract

To investigate the effects of dietary vitamin C on growth, flesh quality and antioxidant capacity of juvenile golden pompano Trachinotus ovatus, a 56-day feeding trial with five graded levels of dietary VC (D1: 11.69, D2: 34.89, D3: 59.10, D4: 114.26 and D5: 227.93 mg VC per kg of diet) was performed on 375 fish (triplicate groups of 25 fish per diet, initial weight 13.57 ± 0.09 g). Results showed that fish of D3 group exhibited the maximum specific growth rate (SGR) and the highest liver enzymatic activities of catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX), which were consistent with the expression levels of cat and gsh-px. Besides, the D3 group also showed higher contents of protein and lipid, and lower cooking loss, drip loss and malondialdehyde content in muscle than D1 group. The docosahexaenoic acid proportion in muscle increased with increasing dietary VC levels. Furthermore, the lowest expression levels of carnitine palmitoyltransferase1 (cpt1) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (pparα) were detected in livers of D3 group. The optimum dietary VC level was 49.73 mg/kg from the broken-line analysis based on the SGR, in which better growth performance, antioxidative ability and flesh quality were observed in T. ovatus juveniles.