Abstract
Introduction: The white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) has become a popular species for aquaculture worldwide due to its euryhaline nature and commercial importance. In aquaculture, the balance of nutrients in the diet of aquatic animals guarantees optimal growth and health improvement. Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is an amino sulfonic acid, which has been proven to be conditionally essential for some aquatic animals when these animals are fed with diets containing high plant protein levels, as taurine is deficient in plant-based protein sources. Taurine has been also implicated in osmoregulation, modulation of neurotransmitters, hormone release, and antioxidation. A 30-day feeding study was conducted to determine the effects of supplementing the taurine (Tau) in the diet of broodstock western white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei.
Materials and Methods: Hawaiian domesticated shrimp stocks were transfered to Persian Gulf University's Aquatic Research Laboratory from a private greenhouse pond (Delvar, Bushehr, Iran). Shrimp brooders were disinfected with formalin (100 ppm, 30s). Following two weeks of acclimatization to the husbandry system, the shrimp brooders were placed in two 4000 L circular fiberglass tanks. A total of 180 shrimp brooders with mean initial weight 29.4 ± 0.2 g, were stocked into 18 black circular polyethylene tanks with a capacity of 250 L. Six isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets were supplemented with graded amounts of taurine including 0 (control), 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 g/kg. To evaluate the effects of Tau on growth, body composition, digestive enzymes, and haemolymph biochemical parameters, sampling was done at the end of the experiment. Results and discussion: The results from this study showed that final weight, specific growth rate, weight gain, condition factor, and survival of shrimp fed the supplemented diets with Tau had no significant differences than the control group (P > 0.05). The protein content in the shrimp muscle fed 6 g/kg Tau
