Effects of Dietary L-carnitine and Betaine on Serum Biochemical Indices of Large Yellow Croaker (Pseudosciaena crocea) Cultured in Floating Net Cages

Wei-guo Sang；Shi-qiu Deng；Ji-kang Shentu；Lei Wang；Qing-yuan Duan

Cholesterol ； free fatty acids ； large yellow croaker ； Pseudosciaena crocea ； triglyceride

Advance Journal of Food Science and Technology

4卷5期（2012 / 10 / 20）

304 - 308

英文

The objective of this study was to investigate the biochemical changes of large yellow croaker as affected by dietary supplements. Large yellow croaker (Pseudosciaena crocea) is a marine species that is widely cultured in China due to its high commercial value. However, the cage-cultured large yellow croakers were found to be less tasty compared with wild large yellow croakers due to high lipid in their body, which significantly impacts the commercial markets. Triglycerides, cholesterol and free fatty acids are main lipid ingredients in the animal body. The fish were fed with basal diet or basal diet supplemented with L-carnitine (0.08% of dry weight diet) or betaine (0.8% of dry weight diet) for 12 weeks in seawater floating net cages (3×2×1.5 m) each holding 60 fishes. Three net cages were assigned to each dietary treatment, as replications. The seawater temperature ranged from 18 to 31°C and salinity from 25 to 28 g/kg. Fish were hand-fed one of the experimental diets to apparent satiety twice daily (05:00 and 17:30) throughout the 12 week experimental period. The results indicate that L-carnitine or betaine in diets significantly reduced Serum Triglyceride (STG) and Serum Cholesterol (SCH) levels while increased Serum Free Fatty Acids (SFFA) content (p＜0.05). The diets of L-carnitine or betaine supplements on serum biochemical indices of that fish species have positive effects. These results suggested that the supplementation with L-carnitine orbetaine is one of the effective ways to improve the meat quality of large yellow croakers cultured in floating net cages.