Effects of Replacement of Fish Meal by Soy Protein Isolate on the Growth, Digestive Enzyme Activity and Serum Biochemical Parameters for Juvenile Amur Sturgeon (Acipenser schrenckii)

An 8-wk experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of replacing fish meal (FM) with soy protein isolate (SPI) on the growth, digestive enzyme activity and serum biochemical parameters of juvenile Amur sturgeon (Acipenser schrenckii). SPI was used to replace 0, 25, 50, 62.5, 75, 87.5, 100% of dietary FM and 100% replacement supplemented crystalline amino acid. Healthy sturgeon with an average initial weight of 26.38 +/- 0.24 g were randomly assigned to 24 aquaria (8 treatments with triplicates each) at an initial stocking density of 11 fish per aquarium and cultured for 8 wks. The results showed that 75.00% or more substitution resulted in a poor weight gain rate, feed conversion ratio and survival rate compared to that of fish fed the control diet (p<0.05), whereas no significant differences were observed between diets of 25.00% to 62.50% substitution. Protease, lipase and amylase activity in foregut, mid-gut and hindgut were significantly (p<0.05) decreased by diets where SPI replacement levels were 62.50% or more. Levels of serum total protein (TP) and globulin decreased significantly from 21.03, 10.34 to 14.05, 5.63 g/L with the increasing dietary SPI (p<0.05), but alkaline phosphatase activity significantly increased (p<0.05). In addition, supplemental crystalline amino acid in the FM absence diet did not improve growth performance, intestine digestive enzyme activities and serum biochemical parameters. In conclusion, the results from this study showed adverse effects of inclusion of SPI in diets on growth performance, feed utilization and serum biochemical parameters in juvenile Amur sturgeon. Based on WGR and replacement ratio presented in this report, a 57.64% replacement level was recommended.