LAUSR

Abstract A growth trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary lipid levels on the growth performance, feed utilization, digestive ability, health status and expression of growth-related genes of female triploid rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Six isonitrogenous diets, containing 46% protein were formulated with graded lipid levels of 6.6 (Diet 1), 12.3 (Diet 2), 14.8 (Diet 3), 19.5 (Diet 4), 22.8 (Diet 5) and 29.4% (Diet 6). Each diet was fed to quadruplicated groups of fish with initial average weight of 233 g in freshwater cages for 80 days. Results showed that there were significant linear and quadratic responses in growth performance, feed utilization, digestive ability and health status of sub-adult fish (P   .05) except that the highest value for muscular layer thickness and density of goblet cells were found in Diet 6 treatment (P   .05), however, the lowest value of plasma total anti-oxidative capacity (T-AOC) content and highest plasma malonaldehyde (MDA) content were shown in Diet 6 treatment (P   .05) except for activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and creatine kinase (CK), which increased as dietary lipid levels increased (P   .05). Broken-line regression analysis of FCR showed that the minimum dietary lipid level of triploid rainbow trout was 23.3% in the present study. In summary, we found that triploid rainbow trout could use or tolerate high dietary lipid level (up to 29.4%) with no negative effect on fish growth, feed utilization, liver or intestine health. The minimum dietary lipid level for sub-adult triploid rainbow trout was estimated to be 23.3% based on FCR under the present conditions.