Preliminary Investigation of Dietary Soy Sensitivity in Shovelnose Sturgeon

Abstract

Sturgeon culture has developed greatly since the 1980s. Cultured sturgeon are often fed a commercial salmonid feed high in fish meal (FM). However, economic and sustainability concerns have put pressure on aquafeed manufactures to incorporate alternative proteins such as soybean meal (SBM). This experiment investigates dietary SBM sensitivity in shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorhynchus). Diets were formulated to contain 0%, 17%, 34%, and 51% SBM and fed for 8 weeks. Weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR), feed efficiency (FE), body and liver composition, and intestinal histology were determined. Although sturgeon growth rates were low for all diets, weight gain in fish fed the diet with 17% SBM averaged 55.6% of sturgeon fed the fish meal-based control diets. Statistically lower negative growth and FE (P < 0.05) were observed when SBM was included at 51% of the diet. However, whole-body proximate composition and hepatic lipid and glycogen content were not altered by dietary SBM inclusion level, and histological evaluation of the distal intestine was inconclusive. These results provide preliminary insight into the effect of diets containing high levels of SBM on growth and health of Scaphirhynchus sturgeon.

KEYWORDS:

• Scaphirhynchus
• aquafeed development
• soybean meal
• fishmeal replacement