Effect of partially protected butyrate used as feed additive on growth and intestinal metabolism in sea bream (Sparus aurata)

Abstract

Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid extensively used in animal nutrition since it promotes increases in body weight and other multiple beneficial effects on the intestinal tract. Although such effects have been demonstrated in several species, very few studies have assessed them in fish. On the other hand, little is known about the metabolic processes underlying these effects. In the present work, growth parameters and changes in more than 80 intestinal metabolites (nucleotides, amino acids and derivatives, glycolytic intermediates, redox coenzymes and lipid metabolism coenzymes) have been quantified in juvenile sea bream fed a butyrate-supplemented diet. Results showed a significant increase in the weight of fish receiving butyrate, while metabolomics provided some clues on the suggested effects of this feed additive. It seems that butyrate increased the availability of several essential amino acids and nucleotide derivatives. Also, the energy provision for enteric cells might have been enhanced by a decrease in glucose and amino acid oxidation related to the use of butyrate as fuel. Additionally, butyrate might have increased transmethylation activity. This work represents an advance in the knowledge of the metabolic consequences of using butyrate as an additive in fish diets.

Feeds, water quality, gut morphology and digestion in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

“…Scheppach (1994) showed that in domestic animal, VFAs stimulated the colonic sodium and fluid absorption and exerted a proliferative effect on the colonocytes. In fish, the beneficial effects of VFA resulted in strong antimicrobial activity, growth promotion (Elala and Ragaa, 2015, Ng et al, 2009, Zhou et al, 2009) and improvement in villi development in the intestine, leading to a better nutrient utilization (Robles et al, 2013). Our study showed a positive correlation between NSP content and the widening of the LP and the increase of the number of GC.…”

“…The energy digestibility in the CAB treatments was higher (1.4 % and 4.6 %) compared to control diets during normoxic and hypoxic periods respectively. The improvement in energy digestibility might be associated with the beneficial effect of butyric acid on the proliferation of the intestinal epithelium (Topping and Clifton, 2001) and with the improvement in villi development which increases the absorption surface area, leading to a better nutrient utilization (Robles et al, 2013).…”

Nutritional evaluation of two marine microalgae as feedstock for aquafeed

“…For example, SCFAs such as acetic (2:0), propionic (3:0) and butyric (4:0) were not observed in P. monodon (Akintola et al, 2013;Chedoloh, Karrila, & Pakdeechanuan, 2011). In fact, butyric acid or butyrate has been widely reported as able to improve the growth, feed efficiency and the proportion of gram-positive bacteria in the hindgut of aquatic animals (Hoseinifar et al, 2017;Nhan et al, 2010;Robles et al, 2013). Butyric acid in this study was found to be present in both D. salina and N. salina, reaching 12.03% and 4.87% of the total FAs respectively.…”

Dietary Butyrate Helps to Restore the Intestinal Status of a Marine Teleost (Sparus aurata) Fed Extreme Diets Low in Fish Meal and Fish Oil

“…This is partly due to differences in the feeding protocols (duration of trials, fish age/size, diet formulations, products, dosage, etc.) [22–25, 27]. For this reason, the level of BP-70 was assessed in a first short trial (T1) which showed that most growth performance and blood parameters were not significantly changed by the three tested doses.…”

“…By contrast, in gilthead sea bream, dietary butyrate has been shown to provide energy for the epithelial intestine with a slight improvement of growth rates [25]. Recent data in European sea bass have shown an improvement of growth and increased gene expression of the oligopeptide transporter 1 in the hindgut of fish fed low FM diets supplemented with butyrate [26].…”