Growth, survival and fatty acid composition of juvenile Litopenaeus vannamei fed different oils in the presence and absence of phospholipids

Abstract

A 2×6 factorial study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary phospholipids (PL) and different neutral lipids, as well as their potential interaction, on growth, survival and fatty acid composition of hepatopancreas and muscle tissue of juvenile Litopenaeus vannamei. The lipid sources were coconut, soybean, linseed, peanut, and menhaden oils. Five diets contained 5% of each test oil and 3.1% of a commercial lecithin containing 97.6% PL. Five additional diets contained 5% of each oil but no lecithin. A control diet contained 3.1% lecithin but no other oil, and an additional control diet contained no PL but 2.21% soybean oil, 0.41% monobasic sodium phosphate, and 0.48% choline chloride (estimated equivalent of soybean oil, phosphorus and choline in 3.1% lecithin). No significant differences (at P<0.05) among treatments were observed for survival and no significant interactions were observed between the effects of PL and oil type for any of the responses after 8 weeks feeding; however, shrimp fed diets containing PL obtained significantly higher final weight and instantaneous growth rate (IGR), and lower feed conversion ratios (FCR) than those fed diets containing the same oil and no PL. Shrimp fed diets containing menhaden oil, with and without PL, showed higher final weight and IGR, and lower FCR than the rest of the treatments. These diets had a larger variety of fatty acids (FA), especially long chain highly unsaturated FA (HUFA), and showed the highest percentage of arachidonic, eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids. Menhaden oil showed a higher nutritional value for juvenile L. vannamei because it provided more essential FA, particularly n−3 HUFA.