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Effects of dietary taurine levels on epidermal thickness and scale loss in red sea bream, P agrus major
Author(s) -
Kato Keitaro,
Yamamoto Masato,
Peerapon Khaoian,
Fukada Haruhisa,
Biswas Amal,
Yamamoto Shinji,
Takii Kenji,
Miyashita Shireru
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
aquaculture research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-2109
pISSN - 1355-557X
DOI - 10.1111/are.12130
Subject(s) - taurine , pagrus major , biology , meal , zoology , fish meal , fish <actinopterygii> , fishery , endocrinology , medicine , food science , biochemistry , amino acid
Taurine is often added to artificial fish diets to compensate for a reduction in fish meal ( FM ). However, the taurine content of FM ‐based diets is typically lower than in diets consisting of raw fish, even in diets where FM is the only protein source. We evaluated the effects of dietary taurine in FM ‐based diets on epidermal thickness and scale detachability in red sea bream P agrus major . We compared the effect of diets containing 0% (control), 0.3% (Tau‐0.3%), 0.6% (Tau‐0.6%) and 1.0% (Tau‐1.0%) taurine. Red sea bream (average body weight, 39 g) were fed these diets for 7 weeks. Taurine supplementation had no effect on growth, feed intake, feeding efficiency, or survival. However, the epidermal thickness was higher in fish in the Tau‐0.6% and Tau‐1.0% groups than in the control and Tau‐0.3% groups. Similarly, scale loss was significantly higher in the control group than in the Tau‐0.6% and Tau‐1.0% groups. Our results suggest that supplementation with >0.6% taurine (1.0% in diet) improves skin condition.