LAUSR

Abstract Five separate feeding trials were conducted with juvenile hybrid striped bass to evaluate the effects of dietary adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP) on growth performance, innate immunity, digestibility, digestive enzyme activity, and physiological responses after acute and chronic stress challenges. For all trials, a basal diet was formulated principally from soybean meal, soy protein concentrate, and fishmeal to contain 40% crude protein, 10% lipid, and 2.5 kcal estimated digestible energy g−1. The experimental diets were prepared for the dose-response trial by supplementing AMP to the basal diet at six graded levels (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.5 and 2.0% of dry weight) at the expense of cellulose. Based on weight gain and protein retention responses after 8 weeks of feeding, the minimum requirement was estimated in a two-slope broken line model to be 0.46% and 0.34% of dry diet, respectively. Therefore, a diet supplemented with 0.5% AMP was evaluated against the basal dietary treatment in the four follow-up trials. The subsequent digestibility trial (4-week) showed that dietary AMP at 0.5% significantly (P