Effects of dietary taurine on growth, nutrient utilization and liver antioxidation status of Oreochromis mossambicus

Abstract- This study evaluated the effect of soybean meal diets supplemented with taurine on growth, nutrient utilisation, liver antioxidant status and enzyme activity of tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus). The objectives of this study were, to find the maximum incorporation level of taurine in Oreochromis mossambicus feed, to evaluate the effect of taurine level on growth and nutrient utilization, and, to study the effect of dietary taurine on liver antioxidant status. The experimental design was completely randomized with one control and four treatments. Control and each treatment had three replicates. A total number of 150 healthy Oreochromis mossambicus fry with an average weight of (29.6±0.033) were stocked in fifteen plastic tanks of 100 Litre water capacity. Total five iso-nitrogenous (30% CP) iso-caloric (6% CL) feeds were prepared with taurine supplementation of 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2% respevtively. Feed was provided ad libitum three times daily at 9:00 am, 12:00 and 5:00 pm daily. The water quality parameters like temperature, pH, DO, ammonia were monitored on weekly basis and the growth response at the end of feeding experiment. On the experimental trial the fish fed with 1.5% and 2% supplemented taurine showed significant difference (P<0.05) in all parameters like weight gain (39.23±0.9 & 39.2±0.26), specific growth rate (0.81±0.1), the nutrient utilization factors like FCR (1.54±0.02 & 1.66±0.01), PER (2.16±0.23), LRE (0.025±0.004). The whole body composition of treatment 3 and treatment 4 fed with supplemented taurine of 1.5 % and 2% showed significant difference in low moisture content, better crude protein, and crude lipid percentage. The digestive enzymes like protease, amylase and catalase also showed significant difference among the treatments. From the present investigation, it was concluded that the plant based feed supplemented with 1.5% of taurine results in comparatively higher growth, nutrient utilisation, liver antioxidation status and digestive enzyme activity of Oreochromis mossambicus.