Separate and combined effects of cyclic fasting and dietary l- carnitine supplementation on biochemical and non- specific immune indices in yellowfin seabream (Acanthopagrus latus, Houttyn, 1782)

The present study was investigated the effect of starvation and L- carnitine supplementation on biochemical (plasma total protein, glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride and liver glycogen) and non- specific immune (plasma lysozyme activity) parameters in yellowfin seabream. In this study, a number of 240 fish with mean 3.23± 0.46 g were randomly fell into four groups (three replicates, n=20) in 60- L plastic tanks. Two groups were fed in daily manner and the other two ones were kept starved for 7 days once in 2 weeks. Two groups of feeding regimes were fed with L- carnitine free basal diet and the other were fed with 800 mg L- carnitine kg-1 diet. Cyclic fasting led to significantly decreased plasma total protein, cholesterol, glucose and significantly increased plasma triglyceride, liver glycogen and plasma lysozyme activity, whereas in both the feeding regimes, no significant difference was detected in plasma glucose, liver glycogen and plasma lysozyme activity of fish fed with 800 mg L- carnitine kg-1 diet. No significant differences were observed in biochemical and immunological parameters under combined cyclic fasting and L- carnitine supplementation. The supplemented L- carnitine diet significantly decreased plasma cholesterol and triglyceride (P