The growth and apparent digestibility of white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, are increased with the probiotic, Bacillus subtilis

The aims of this study were to evaluate the probiotic efficiency of Bacillus subtilis E20 (10(9) colony-forming units kg(-1)) on the growth and apparent digestibility coefficients (ADCs) of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), amino acids (AAs), and crude lipids (CLs) of the white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. A control diet without probiotic supplementation was used. Shrimp exhibited significant increases in growth performance and feed utilization after being fed the test diet for 56 days. Shrimp were then used to evaluate the apparent nutrient digestibility using 0.1% Cr2O3 in the diet as an indicator. During the trial, faeces was collected from triplicate groups of shrimp twice daily. ADCs of CP and DM in the test diet significantly increased compared to those of the control diet. Although the ADCs of CLs did not significantly differ between the control and probiotic group, the ADC of CLs was higher in the probiotic group than in the control group. In addition, ADCs of most AAs in the test diet were significantly higher compared to those of the control diet. These results suggest that shrimp in the test group had significantly better growth performance, which was due to increases in nutrient digestibility and absorption.