Evaluation of growth performance and biochemical parameters of western white leg shrimp, Litopenaus vanname (Boone, 1931) fed with fucoidan enriched diet

The aim of this study was to investigate the different levels of dietary fucoidan on growth performance, survival and biochemical parameters of Litopenaus vannamei. Shrimps with a mean initial weight about 8 g were fed with four different diets containing four levels of fucoidan (0, 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.4%) for 30 days in a completely randomized design with triplicates. The results showed that the growth performance (final weight, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and specific growth rate) of shrimp fed with diet containing fucoidan was significantly (P <0.01) improved compared to shrimps fed with control diet. The best growth performance was observed in shrimps fed diet containing 0.4% fucoidan. Survival did not show a significant difference between the groups fed with fucoidan supplementation and control (P> 0.05). The biochemical parameters of hemolymph including glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol were significantly reduced in shrimps fed with different levels of fucoidan compared to the control group. However, the amount of protein in the groups fed with fucoidan supplementation increased compared to the control. The activity of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase enzymes in hemolymph of control shrimp was higher than shrimps fed with fucoidan diet. In general, the results of the present study revealed that diets containing different levels of fucoidan, especially 0.4%, led to the increment of growth indices and the improvement of hemolymph biochemical parameters, thus improving of the health status of shrimp.