title: Excess dietary cholesterol may have an adverse effect on growth performance of early post-larval Litopenaeus vannamei.
abstract: One experiment was conducted to determine the nutritive value of cholesterol for post-larval shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. Four isoenergetic and isonitrogenous diets supplemented with four levels of cholesterol (D1, D2, D3 and D4 with 0, 0.5%, 1% and 2% cholesterol, respectively) were fed to triplicate groups of L. vannamei shrimp (mean initial wet weight 0.8 mg) for 27 days. After the trial, shrimp fed the D1 diet had the best growth performance (final body weights: FBW; weight gain: WG; specific growth rate: SGR), while there was no significant difference between diet treatments with respect to survival. The whole body crude protein level in the shrimp decreased with the increase in dietary cholesterol levels, while the whole body crude lipid level in shrimps in the D4 diet treatment was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than in other diet treatments. Dietary analysis indicated that the D1 diet contained 0.92% cholesterol prior to supplementation, which may have satisfied the dietary cholesterol requirement of post-larval L. vannamei; excess dietary cholesterol may thus lead to adverse effects on the growth performance of post-larval shrimp.
authors.affiliation: Nutrition Laboratory, Institute of Aquatic Economic Animals, School of Life Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People's Republic of China. edls@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: Peng-Fei
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Li-Xia
authors.initials: LX
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Yong-Jian
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hei-Zhao
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Hui-Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Gui-Ying
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Liang