Effects of Dietary Taurine on the Growth, Digestive Enzymes, and Antioxidant Capacity in Juvenile Sea Cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus

Abstract

Taurine has been widely used as a growth‐ or health‐promoting additive in aquatic animals because of its multiple functions, while little work has been done on its effects on sea cucumbers, in spite of the occurrence of serious diseases. In this study, juvenile sea cucumbers (4.68 ± 0.04 g) were fed diets supplemented with taurine at 0% (control), 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1, and 2% for 8 wk. At the end of an 8‐wk feeding trial, growth performance of sea cucumbers was not significantly affected by dietary taurine (P > 0.05). However, dietary taurine significantly elevated intestinal lipase activities of sea cucumbers (P < 0.05). Intestinal amylase activity and trypsin activity in sea cucumbers did not show significant changes after animals were fed diets supplemented with taurine (P > 0.05). Dietary taurine at all five dosages significantly increased total antioxidant capacity in sea cucumbers, while superoxide dismutase activity in groups with dietary taurine at 0.25 and 0.5% was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). Therefore, it appears that taurine could be used as a potential feed additive to confer better health of farmed sea cucumbers.

Effect of dietary taurine supplementation on growth, digestive enzyme, immunity and resistant to dry stress of rice field eel (Monopterus albus) fed low fish meal diets

“…With the increase of taurine supplementation, the activities of SOD, CAT, and T‐AOC of M. albus fed diets with lower fish meal significantly increased and then decreased. It is worth mentioning that there was no significant difference of these activities between the T group (T 0.06 and T 0.09 groups) with the FM group, and this confirmed the effect of suitable taurine supplementation on anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant, and these results were consistent with researches in sea cucumber ( Apostichopus Japonicus ; Zhao, Zhang, Yuan, & Liu, ) and yellow catfish (Li et al., ).…”

“…Effects of dietary taurine levels on serum physiological index (adrenaline, cortisol, glucose and cholesterol), antioxidant capacity (total antioxidant capacity and malonaldehyde) and immune enzyme activities (superoxide dismutase and catalase) of Monopterus albus after resisting to dry stress for 63 days (Mean AE SE, n = 3). It is worth mentioning that there was no significant difference of these activities between the T group (T 0.06 and T 0.09 groups) with the FM group, and this confirmed the effect of suitable taurine supplementation on anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, and these results were consistent with researches in sea cucumber (Apostichopus Japonicus;Zhao, Zhang, Yuan, & Liu, 2017) and yellow catfish The result showed that the suitable taurine supplementation level would decrease the lipid peroxidation, but the effect was limited.…”

Dietary taurine supplementation to a plant protein source‐based diet improved the growth and intestinal immune function of young grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella)

“…Taurine is a conditionally essential amino acid for fish, which is abundant in fishmeal, whereas most plant protein sources contain virtually no taurine (Espe & Holen, ; Salze & Davis, ). A previous study reported that the supplementation of taurine in a high‐plant protein source‐based diet increased the lipase activities, leading to the elevated digestive capacity in the intestine of Sea cucumber ( Apostichopus japonicas ; Zhao, Zhang, Yuan, & Liu, ). It was reported that the digestive capacity strongly relied on intestinal health which could be partially reflected by the intestinal immune function in fish (Chen et al, ).…”

Assessment of bacterial communities in skin ulceration in cultured sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka)

“…In northern China, A. japonicus is cultivated on a commercial scale by sea ranching or in shallow ponds, with the latter being more commonly employed in northern China (Choo 2008). Breeding methods for this species have improved in the past decade, and its transcriptome has been sequenced, although extensive studies on the thermal resistance, disease resistance, and growth rates of A. japonicas have been conducted, no effective and practical method to prevent the development of skin ulcerations during its cultivation has been established (Du et al 2012;Gianasi et al 2017;Zhao et al 2017). The skin ulceration usually takes place when water temperature gets low from December to March, and once occurs, it spreads to a whole pond within days and brings a lethal death rate higher than 90%.…”