Open AccessEstimation of dietary vitamin K requirement of juvenile Chinese soft‐shelled turtle, Pelodiscus sinensis
Author(s) -
Su YiTing,
Huang ChenHuei
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
aquaculture nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1365-2095
pISSN - 1353-5773
DOI - 10.1111/anu.12953
Subject(s) - biology , juvenile , zoology , vitamin , menadione , carapace , turtle (robot) , vitamin e , endocrinology , biochemistry , fishery , antioxidant , ecology , oxidative stress , crustacean
A 10‐week feeding trial was conducted to estimate the dietary vitamin K requirements of juvenile Chinese soft‐shelled turtles, Pelodiscus sinensis , using menadione sodium bisulphite (MSB) as the vitamin K source. Juvenile soft‐shelled turtles with 6.1 ± 0.1 g body weight were individually reared and fed diets containing seven levels of MSB (0.0, 5.0, 8.9, 12.3, 16.6, 20.7 and 41.0 mg/kg). Turtles fed with an MSB‐free diet exhibited the lowest feed utilization, carapace Ca concentrations, carapace strength or liver menaquinone (MK‐4) concentrations among all dietary groups. Weight gain (WG) in the turtles tended to increase with increase in dietary MSB until a dietary MSB level of 16.6 mg/kg, where WG levelled off. Total plasma prothrombin concentrations, an indicator for blood clotting function, in the turtles fed on MSB supplemented diets were significantly ( p < 0.05) lower than those in turtles fed on MSB supplemented diets. Liver MSB concentrations increased with increase in dietary MSB. Using broken‐line or sigmoidal regression model, the vitamin K requirements of juvenile Chinese soft‐shelled turtles based on WG, total plasma prothrombin concentrations and liver vitamin K were 21.5, 25.8 and 29.9 mg MSB per kg, respectively.