Dietary sodium butyrate administration alleviates high soybean meal-induced growth retardation and enteritis of orange-spotted groupers (Epinephelus coioides)

Abstract

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to investigate whether dietary sodium butyrate (SB) administration alleviates growth reduction and enteritis of orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides) caused by high soybean meal (SBM) feeding. The control diet (FM diet) was formulated to contain 48% protein and 11% fat. Soybean meal was used to replace 60% FM protein in FM diet to prepare a high SBM diet (HSBM diet). Sodium butyrate (SB) at 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3% were added to HSBM diets to prepare three diets. Triplicate groups of 30 groupers (initial weight: 33.0 ± 0.3 g) were fed one of the diets twice daily, to apparent satiety. HSBM diets had lowered growth rate and feed efficiency vs FM diets (P <0.05). Growth rate and feed efficiency were improved by dietary SB administration and were in a dose-dependent manner (P <0.05). A similar pattern to the growth rate was observed for plasma LDL-C and gut digestive activity of lipase, trypsin, and protease, but the opposite trend was observed for intestinal contents of D-lactic acid and endotoxin, in response to dietary SB inclusion levels (P >0.05). The muscular thickness in the middle and distal intestines in SB-treated diets were higher than that in HSBM diets (P <0.05). The mRNA levels of intestinal pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-8, IL-1β, IL-12 and TNF-α had a decreasing trend, and the mRNA level of intestinal anti-inflammatory cytokine TGF-β1 had the opposite trend, with increasing SB inclusion levels (P < 0.05). The above results indicate that dietary SB intervention could enhance growth and feed utilization of groupers with SBM-induced enteritis by promoting intestinal digestive enzyme activities, reducing mucosa permeability, maintaining the integrity of intestinal morphology and attenuating the intestinal inflammatory response.

Dietary High Glycinin Reduces Growth Performance and Impairs Liver and Intestinal Health Status of Orange-Spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coioides)

“…It is well known that the intestine is the place for fish to digest and absorb nutrients [ 7 ]. The intestinal histomorphological integrity is the prerequisite for keeping a good digestion and absorption state, and intestinal disease resistance is a crucial barrier against exogenous pathogens in the immune defense of fish [ 46 ].…”

“…Previous studies showed that dietary high-SBM content triggers significant changes in the expression of inflammatory-factor genes in fish [ 7 , 12 , 46 ]. Massive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines was observed in fish fed high-SBM diets [ 8 , 11 , 13 ].…”

“…One of the major sources of alternatives to FM is soybean by-products, and they have been widely used in aquafeeds as the main protein for most farmed fish because soybean has a higher protein quality, steady supply, and low price compared with other vegetable proteins [ 4 ]. It has been reported that the use of a high-soybean diet can cause poor growth performance [ 5 , 6 , 7 ], induce oxidative stress [ 8 , 9 ], increase histological damage in the intestine [ 10 , 11 ], lead to microbiota dysbiosis [ 7 , 8 , 9 ] and induce intestinal inflammation [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. However, the occurrence of the negative effects of SBM is caused by the existence of anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) [ 15 , 16 ].…”

Effects of Lycium barbarum polysaccharides supplemented to high soybean meal diet on immunity and hepatic health of spotted sea bass Lateolabrax maculatus

“…For example, high soybean meal diet (HSBMD) can cause a series of problems in turbot ( Scophthalmus maximus ), including slower growth, tissue degeneration, inflammation and other physiological and metabolic disorders ( 10 ). It is worth mentioning that the above symptoms are particularly obvious in carnivorous fish ( 11 , 12 ).…”