Effects of thyroid hormone supplementation of canola meal-based diets on growth, and interrenal and thyroid gland physiology of rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri)

Abstract

Rainbow trout fed a 26% canola meal-based (CM) diet for 12 weeks at 15°C exhibited reduced growth, lower feed conversion, enlarged thyroid glands and lower plasma thyroid hormone (TH) levels than comparable fish fed equinitrogenous, equicaloric soybean meal-based (SB) diets. Supplementation of the SB diets with either T4 (20 mg/kg) or T3 (10 or 20 mg/kg) had no effect on the growth rate, feed conversion and thyroid histology of the trout. However, plasma T4 levels weredepressed in trout fed the T4- and high T3-supplemented SB diets. In trout fed T4- and T3-supplemented CM diets the growth rates and feed conversion were not significantly different from those of the SB-fed groups. Moreover, in the T4-supplemented group, plasma T4 levels were in the normal range. However, thyroid enlargement was evident in all the CM-fed fish, and plasma T3 levels were markedly elevated in groups fed the T3-supplemented CM diets. The data suggest that antithyroid components in the CM diets inhibited TH synthesis (but not their release), and impaired TH clearance from the circulation. There were no significant differences in plasma cortisol levels in the 8 treatment groups, nor were there differences in the histological appearance of the interrenal gland. However, when the data from SB- and CM-fed fish were pooled, plasma cortisol levels in the SB-fed fish were significantly lower than in the CM-fed animals. Glucosinolates at a level of 164 mg/kg diet were toxic to young trout, but the effect was ameliorated by dietary TH supplementation.