Evaluation of Natural and Synthetic Carotenoid Supplementation on Growth, Survival, Total Carotenoid Content, Fatty Acids Profile and Stress Resistance of European Seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, Fry

Abstract

A feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels ofdietary carotenoid sources on growth, antioxidant responses, total carotenoidcontent, fatty acid profile and stress resistance of European seabass (Dicentrarchuslabrax) with 0.3±0.02 g. Three types of carotenoids derived from either synthetic-1astaxanthin (AX; 0.05, 0.1 g kg ), or natural source: marigold flower meal (ML; 0.1, 0.2,-1-10.3 g kg ) and crab waste meal (CM; 5, 10, 15 g kg ) were separately tested. Thecontrol diet (CTR) had no carotenoid supplementation. Nine fish treatments (threereplicates each) were fed isonitrogenous (47% CP) and isolipidic (12.5%) diets threetimes per day to apparent satiation for 10 weeks. The study indicated that dietarysupplementation with CM10 and ML0.2 exhibited better growth performance, weightgain, daily growth index and growth coefficient than the control group. After 10weeks, total body carotenoids content significantly (P0.05). Results have suggested that dietary inclusion of CM and ML at-1doses of 10 or 0.2 g kg respectively, could improve growth, total carotenoid content,antioxidant activities and stress resistance of seabass fry as efficiently as thecommercial synthetic astaxanthin.