Effects of Dietary Garlic Extracts on Whole Body Amino Acid and Fatty Acid Composition, Muscle Free Amino Acid Profiles and Blood Plasma Changes in Juvenile Sterlet Sturgeon, Acipenser ruthenus

A series of studies were carried out to investigate the supplemental effects of dietary garlic extracts (GE) on whole body amino acids, whole body and muscle free amino acids, fatty acid composition and blood plasma changes in 6 month old juvenile sterlet sturgeon (Acipenser ruthenus). In the first experiment, fish with an average body weight of 59.6 g were randomly allotted to each of 10 tanks (two groups of five replicates, 20 fish/tank) and fed diets with (0.5%) or without (control) GE respectively, at the level of 2% of fish body weight per day for 5 wks. Whole body amino acid composition between the GE and control groups were not different (p>0.05). Among free amino acids in muscle, L-glutamic acid, L-alanine, L-valine, L-leucine and L-phenylalanine were significantly (p<0.05) higher in GE than in control. However, total whole body free amino acids were significantly lower in GE than in control (p<0.05). GE group showed higher EPA (C22:6n3) and DHA (C22:5n3) in their whole body than the other group (p<0.05). In the second experiment, the effects of dietary garlic extracts on blood plasma changes were investigated using 6 month old juvenile sterlet sturgeon averaging 56.5 g. Fish were randomly allotted to each of 2 tanks (300 fish/tank) and fed diets with (0.5%) or without (control) GE respectively, at the rate of 2% of body weight per day for 23 d. At the end of the feeding trial, blood was taken from the tail vein (n = 5, per group) at 1, 12, and 24 h after feeding, respectively. Blood plasma glucose, insulin and the other serological characteristics were also measured to assess postprandial status of the fish. Plasma glucose concentrations (mg/dl) between two groups (GE vs control) were significantly (p< 0.05) different at 1 (50.8 vs 62.4) and 24 h (57.6 vs 73.6) after feeding, respectively, while no significant difference (p>0.05) were noticed at 12 h (74.6 vs 73.0). Plasma insulin concentrations (μIU/ml) between the two groups were significantly (p<0.05) different at 1 (10.56 vs 5.06) and 24 h (32.56 vs 2.96) after feeding. The present results suggested that dietary garlic extracts could increase dietary glucose utilization through the insulin secretion, which result in improved fish body quality and feed utilization by juvenile sterlet sturgeon.