Effects of fructooligosaccharides (FOS) on growth, survival, gut microflora, stress, and immune response in Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, cultured in a recirculating system

ABSTRACT

The present study investigated the effects of short-chain fructooligosaccharides (FOS) as dietary supplements on stress, immune response, gut microbiota, growth, and survivability of three different treatment groups of Pacific white shrimp, Litopaneous vennamei, cultured in a recirculating system. The experiment was conducted over a 35-day trial period. Shrimps were fed diets, 15 times a day using automated feeder, supplemented with GOS at 0%, 0.15%, and 0.30% by weight. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis revealed that the enteric microbial community of shrimp fed the basal diet differed markedly (<80.0% similarity coefficient) from those fed FOS-supplemented diets. However, shrimp survival, weight gain, and immune responses among the treatment groups were good but not significantly different (P > 0.05), probably due to the limited length of the feeding trial.

KEYWORDS:

• Shrimp
• fructooligosaccharides
• stress
• immune response
• growth
• survival

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank GTC Nutrition, Golden, CO, for providing the fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and partial funding for this project.

Disclosure

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported in part by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Marine Shrimp Farming Program, Texas Agrilife Research Mariculture Laboratory at Port Aransas, Hatch Project, and Texas A & M System.