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Effect of soybean meal, raffinose and stachyose on the growth, body composition, intestinal morphology and intestinal microflora of juvenile allogynogenetic silver crucian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio, Â Cyprinus carpio<) AbstractThe study was conducted to investigate the e¡ects of soybean meal (SBM), ra⁄nose and stachyose on juvenile crucian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio, Â Cyprinus carpio<). The experimental diets consisted of one control diet based on ¢sh meal (FM), one diet containing 300 g kg À 1 SBM and four FMbased diets with the addition of either 6.7 g kg À 1 raf-¢nose (Raf), 33.9 g kg À 1 stachyose (Sta), a combination of ra⁄nose and stachyose (Raf À Sta) and ¢nally a Raf À Sta diet supplemented with 2.5 g kg À 1 saponins (Raf À Sta À Sap). After 3 weeks of feeding, the relative gut lengths of SBM-fed ¢sh and the ¢sh fed stachyose-containing diets were shorter than those of the FM-fed ¢sh; further, more SBM-fed ¢sh showed ¢ssures on the tips of the intestinal folds. After 8 weeks of feeding, the growth of SBM-fed ¢sh was sig-ni¢cantly lower than that of FM-fed ¢sh (Po0.05). The ¢sh fed Raf À Sta À Sap had a low relative gut length (Po0.05). In comparison with the other ¢sh, the SBM-fed ¢sh had a higher number of large-sized homogeneous vacuoles in the cytoplasm of epithelial cells and shorter microvilli. No signi¢cant di¡erence was observed in body composition or intestinal mi-cro£ora. The results indicated that ra⁄nose and stachyose played no or only minor roles in the development of soybean-induced growth reduction.

This study was carried out to evaluate whether silymarin supplementation influences growth, lipid metabolism, and health status in grass carp fed elevated dietary lipid levels. The juvenile fish (27.43 ± 0.17 g/tail) were fed six isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets in a factorial design containing 0, 100, or 200 mg kg silymarin (SM0, SM100, SM200) associated with either 4 or 8 % lipid level (low lipid, LL, and high lipid, HL, respectively) for 82 days. The results showed that both dietary silymarin supplementation and high lipid level significantly enhanced growth performance (WG, SGR), protein efficiency ratio, and feed utilization. Silymarin supplementation significantly reduced the VSI, hepatic lipid content, and the total bilirubin concentration in the serum. The gallbladdersomatic index displayed higher in the SM100 groups than SM200 groups. Serum total cholesterol content exhibited lower in the SM100 groups than SM0 groups. Meanwhile, significant interactions were shown for hepatic gene expression of HSL and CPT1 by two factors, and SM100 group had higher hepatic gene expression of HSL and CPT1 in fish fed with the HL diets. The SM100 groups up-regulated hepatic gene expressions of HMGCR and CYP7A1 compared with the SM0 groups. Silymarin supplementation notably reduced the elevated serum MDA content induced by HL treatments. Thus, silymarin supplementation markedly promoted growth and protein efficiency, suppressed lipid accumulation, and improved health status in grass carp fed with high-lipid diets, which might be associated with its enhancement of lipolysis and β-oxidation, antioxidant capacity.