Effects of Dietary L-Carnitine Supplementation on Growth Pattern, Body Chemical Composition, Body Fatty Acid Profile and Insulin Liked Factor- 1 (IGF-1) of Yellowfin Seabream, Acanthopagrus latus, Houttyn, 1782

L- carnitine has been recognized as a new and important dietary supplementation, essential for human and animal nutrition. This study was conducted to evaluate the use of dietary l- carnitine supplementation and its effects on the growth (body final weight, daily growth rate (DGR), feed efficiency (FE), feed conversion ratio (FCR), daily feed intake (DFI), protein efficiency ratio (PER), lipid efficiency ratio (LPE), protein productive value (PPV), lipid productive value (LPV), body compositions (crude protein, crude lipid, ash and moisture), body fatty acid profile and IGF-1 activity in yellowfin seabream. In this study, a number of 240 fish with a mean weight of 3.23± 0.46 g were randomly allocated into four groups (three replicates, 20 fish per tank) in 60-L plastic tanks and fed with four experimental diets having carnitine with the concentrations 0, 400, 800, and 1200 mg kg-1 diet (referred as C0, C400, C800 and C1200 respectively). After 9 weeks of the feeding trial, there was a significant increase in growth performance (except for DGR), carcass quality (crude protein and crude lipid), muscle fatty acid and IGF‑1 activity in the fish fed C800 diet compared to those fed the other diets. Also a positive correlation was detected between plasma IGF-1 activity and DGR except for C1200 diet. The diet containing 800 mg kg-1 dietary L‑carnitine can have marked effects on growth yield, carcass quality, IGF-1 activity and lipid metabolism of yellowfin seabream