Effect of dietary conjugated linoleic acid levels on growth performance, muscle fatty acid profile, hepatic intermediary metabolism and antioxidant responses in genetically improved farmed Tilapia strain of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to determine the effect of dietary conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on growth performance, muscle fatty acid profile, hepatic intermediary metabolism and antioxidant responses in genetically improved farmed Tilapia (GIFT) strain of Oreochromis niloticus (initial body weight: 42.6 +/- 0.4 similar to g, mean +/- standard deviation). Three replicated groups of GIFT strain of Nile tilapia were hand-fed to satiation, twice a day, with the diets in which CLA oil, containing mainly the bioactive cis-9, trans-11 and trans-10, cis-12 isomers, was included at 0 (control), 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2% and 2.5%, respectively, at the expense of fish oil to maintain the constant lipid and energy levels. Growth performance and feed utilization showed no significant differences among the treatments (P similar to>similar to 0.05). The dietary inclusion of CLA modified total percentages of the main groups of fatty acids. Increasing saturated fatty acid content and reduced mono-unsaturated fatty acid contents in muscle were observed with increasing dietary CLA inclusion (P similar tosimilar to 0.05). Dietary CLA supplementation resulted in the significant increase in the trans-10, cis-12 and cis-9, trans-11 CLA isomers in muscle (P similar to