Effect of supplemental taurine on juvenile channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus growth performance

Authors: Peterson, Brian; LI, MENGHE - Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center

Submitted to: Aquaculture Nutrition
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/3/2017
Publication Date: 3/15/2018
Citation: Peterson, B.C., Li, M.H. 2018. Effect of supplemental taurine on juvenile channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus growth performance. Aquaculture Nutrition. 24:310-314.

Interpretive Summary: Taurine is a beta-amino sulfur amino acid found in most animal tissues that has many important biological functions including bile salt conjugation, cellular osmoregulation, and calcium signaling. Juvenile channel catfish (5.6 g/fish) were fed a basal diet that contained major protein (soybean meal, cottonseed meal) and energy (ground corn grain, wheat middlings) ingredients that were derived from plant sources. Plant-source ingredients are considered to be low (< 0.01%) for taurine content. The basal diet was supplemented with 3 levels of crystalline taurine to provide 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5% taurine. In addition, a fifth diet that contained 8% menhaden fishmeal formulated with the same plant-source ingredients was included as the positive control diet. Fish were fed the five diets once daily for 12 weeks. At the end of the study the fish were group-weighed to obtain data for body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and then individually counted to obtain percent survival. Weight gain was highest in catfish fed taurine at 0.2% (47.8 g/fish) compared to catfish fed the control basal diet (40.8 g/fish) and 8% fishmeal diet (41.1 g/fish). Among the taurine supplemented diets, weight gain was lowest in catfish fed taurine at 0.5%. Feed conversion ratio was significantly improved in fish fed diets supplemented with taurine at 0.2% compared to all other treatments. Survival during the growth study ranged 98.0-99.0% for all treatments. The results suggest taurine supplementation to juvenile channel catfish may improve weight gain and FCR.

Technical Abstract: Taurine is a beta-amino sulfur amino acid found in most animal tissues that has many important biological functions including bile salt conjugation, cellular osmoregulation, neuromodulation, calcium signaling. The benefits of supplementing diets with taurine are just beginning to be realized in a number of aquaculture species. Juvenile channel catfish (5.6 g/fish) were fed a basal diet that contained major protein (soybean meal, cottonseed meal) and energy (ground corn grain, wheat middlings) ingredients that were derived from plant sources. Plant-source ingredients are considered to be low (< 0.01%) for taurine content. The basal diet was supplemented with 3 levels of crystalline taurine to provide 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5% taurine. In addition, a fifth diet that contained 8% menhaden fishmeal formulated with the same plant-source ingredients was included as the positive control diet. Fish were fed the five diets once daily for 12 weeks. At the end of the study the fish were group-weighed to obtain data for body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and then individually counted to obtain percent survival. Weight gain was highest in catfish fed taurine at 0.2% (47.8 g/fish) compared to catfish fed the control basal diet (40.8 g/fish) and 8% fishmeal diet (41.1 g/fish) (P < 0.05). Among the taurine supplemented diets, weight gain was lowest in catfish fed taurine at 0.5%. Feed conversion ratio was significantly improved in fish fed diets supplemented with taurine at 0.2% compared to all other treatments (P < 0.01). Survival during the growth study ranged 98.0-99.0% (P > 0.05) for all treatments. The results suggest taurine supplementation to juvenile channel catfish may improve weight gain and FCR.