Effect of high-dose vitamin C supplementation on growth, tissue ascorbic acid concentrations and physiological response to transportation stress in juvenile silver pomfret, Pampus argenteus

Abstract

Summary This study investigated the effect of high‐dose vitamin C supplementation on growth, tissue ascorbic acid concentrations and physiological response to transportation stress in juvenile silver pomfret, Pampus argenteus (initial average weight 6.2 ± 0.2 g). Three practical diets were formulated to contain 100 (control), 450 and 800 mg ascorbic acid/kg diet, respectively, supplied as l‐ascorbyl‐2‐polyphosphate. Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of fish in circular tanks (3 m ø, 1.5 m depth) (60 fish/tank) for 9 weeks. Growth did not change significantly with dietary vitamin C levels, although an improvement tendency with an increase in vitamin C supplementation was observed. Ascorbic acid concentrations in the liver and muscle of fish fed diets containing graded levels of vitamin C were positively correlated with dietary levels of this vitamin. Tissue ascorbic acid concentrations significantly increased with increasing vitamin C supplementation. After 9 weeks, the fish were subjected to transportation stress for 4 h to determine the influence of high vitamin C supplementation on the physiological response to this stressor. Serum cortisol, glucose and lactate levels significantly increased in stressed fish. Serum cortisol and glucose concentrations after stress were significantly higher in fish fed the control diet (7.91 μg L−1 and 0.80 mm, respectively) than in the other groups. However, there were no significant differences in serum cortisol and glucose levels after stress between the 450 and 800 mg kg−1 diets. No significant change could be found in serum lactate levels after stress among the different treatments. In conclusion, the dietary administration of high doses of vitamin C could reduce stress in silver pomfret and increase the survival of fish under stress conditions.

Effects of dietary vitamin E (DL-α-tocopheryl acetate) and vitamin C combination on piglets oxidative status and immune response at weaning

“…Hence, vitamin C supplementation in weaning piglets can increase immunoglobulin concentration (Zhao et al, 2002;Lauridsen and Jensen, 2005) and improve performance parameters (Bekenev et al, 2015). It was found that vitamin C is able to reduce stress effects in fish (Peng et al, 2013) and chicken (Chand et al, 2014). However, in weanling piglets there were only some or no beneficial effects (Mahan and Saif, 1983).…”

The use of feed and water additives for live fish transport

“…Dietary supplements are commonly used in aquaculture for a wide variety of reasons including stress reduction (Peng et al . ; Vallejos‐Vidal et al . ), improving specific and nonspecific immune resistance (Wang et al .…”

“…Dietary supplements are commonly used in aquaculture for a wide variety of reasons including stress reduction (Peng et al 2013;Vallejos-Vidal et al 2016), improving specific and nonspecific immune resistance (Wang et al 2006;Vallejos-Vidal et al 2016), enhancing colouration (Pan & Chien 2009;Kouba et al 2013) and increasing growth rate (Vallejos-Vidal et al 2016). Therefore, prior to transport, there is the opportunity to use dietary supplements to enhance the immune system and improve stress tolerance (Volpatti et al 1998;Lim et al 2002;Rollo et al 2006).…”

“…Fish cannot synthesise ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and rely on absorption through their food (Sales & Janssens 2003;Peng et al 2013). Supplementing feed with ascorbic acid has been found to reduce mortality following a stressor (Lim et al 2002).…”

“…Supplementing feed with ascorbic acid has been found to reduce mortality following a stressor (Lim et al 2002). Peng et al (2013) fed silver pomfret (Pampus argenteus, Euphras en, 1788) a diet supplemented with ascorbic acid (L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate, 35% ascorbic acid equivalent to a concentration of 100, 450 or 800 mg ascorbic acid kg À1 diet) for 9 weeks. Silver pomfret were then transported in darkened plastic bags for 4 h. Diet supplementation with ascorbic acid significantly reduced serum cortisol and glucose levels as well as mortality, indicating that high ascorbic acid successfully reduced stress associated with transport.…”