Background: Research on the impact of high-fat diets in protein-restricted feeding programs on growth, digestive enzyme activity, and oxidative status of Western White Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei).
Aim: To investigate the effects of feed protein restriction and the use of high lipid (HL) on growth indices, nutritional parameters, hemolymph biochemical indices, antioxidant status, digestive enzyme activity, and body chemical composition of Western White Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei).
Methodology: 350 post-larvae nursery shrimp (28 days old) were fed for 56 days in a completely randomized design with seven dietary treatments: p40, p30, p30HL, 1p40-2p30HL, 1P40-2P30, 1P40-3P30, and 1P40-3P30HL, with different protein restriction programs. P40: Feed containing 40% protein; P30: Feed containing 30% protein; P30HL: Feed containing 30% protein with high lipid. The numbers preceding these three feeds in the other four treatments indicate the number of days. For example, in treatment 1P40-2P30, P40 feed is used for one day and P30 feed is used for two days. Conclusions: Differences between dietary treatments were statistically significant in most growth and nutritional indices (P<0/05). Treatment P40 and subsequently 1p40-2p30HL showed the best performance (P>0.05). In contrast, treatment 30P showed the weakest performance (P<0/05). In hemolymph biochemical indices, most factors, except for cholesterol, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and acid phosphatase (ACP), showed no significant differences between treatments (P>0/05), with treatment P30HL showing the highest values for these three indices. Antioxidant index results showed that the activity of all enzymes except catalase (CAT) was significantly increased in treatments with high lipid (P<0/05). In digestive enzymes, treatments differed significantly in lipase and protease enzymes (P<0/05), while amylase activity did not differ significantly between treatments (P>0/05). Body chemical composition results showed that treatment