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Effects of chromium picolinate supplementation on growth, body composition, and biochemical parameters in Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

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Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of chromium picolinate (Cr-Pic) on growth performance, body composition, and biochemical parameters in Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. Five experimental diets were formulated with high-protein diet (HP), low-protein diet (LP), and LP + 0.6, 1.2, or 1.8 mg kg−1 Cr, respectively. Each diet was randomly assigned to four replicate groups of 30 fish per aquarium in a water-circulated rearing system for 60 days. Dietary 1.2 or 1.8 mg kg−1 Cr inclusion significantly affects the final body weight, weight gain rate, specific growth rate, feed efficiency rate, and protein efficiency ratio of tilapia compare to the LP diet. The Cr inclusion significantly decreased the content of blood urea nitrogen and the blood glucose level generally with increasing Cr inclusion levels. The Cr content of gill tissue was higher than that of back muscle in all treatments, and the addition of 1.2 or 1.8 mg kg−1 Cr significantly enhanced the Cr contents of back muscle. The cold stress test results showed that adding Cr significantly enhanced the serum T3 concentration and reduced the activity of serum creatine kinase and the serum cortisol level. These results indicated that the supplementation of chromium picolinate can improve the growth performance and reshape the serum protein and carbohydrate metabolism profile and has the potentiality to alleviate the detrimental effects of cold stress in Nile tilapia. The low-protein diet with 1.8 mg kg−1 Cr obtained the same growth performance as the high-protein diet.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.31472288) to Jiting Wang; Natural Scientific Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No.Y2008D35); A Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science & Technology Program (Grant No.J09LC05); Shandong Science and Technology Development Plan Project to Jiting Wang (Grant No. 2014GGH210010) and Funds of Shandong “Double Tops” Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention; Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Nutrition & Environmental Health, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai’an, 271018, Shandong, China

    Hongxia Li, Xiao Meng, Hanliang Liu, Minmin Sun, Hongwei Wang & Jiting Wang

  2. Department of Basic Medicine, Taishan Medical University, 2 Yingsheng East Road, Tai’an, 271018, Shandong, China

    Wenju Wan

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  1. Hongxia Li
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  2. Xiao Meng
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  3. Wenju Wan
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  6. Hongwei Wang
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  7. Jiting Wang
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Correspondence to Jiting Wang.

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Li, H., Meng, X., Wan, W. et al. Effects of chromium picolinate supplementation on growth, body composition, and biochemical parameters in Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. Fish Physiol Biochem 44, 1265–1274 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-018-0514-0

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