Interaction between dietary composition and seasonal temperature changes in gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata: effects on growth, fat deposition, plasma biochemistry, digestive enzyme activity and gut bacterial community

Abstract

The optimization of feeding strategy in relation to the environmental condition needs further investigation in order to maximise performance, fish health and fish quality of Mediterranean farmed species. Environmental temperature during seasonal changes may affects fish metabolism, digestive enzymes activity and gut bacterial community which may exert an effect on performance and tissue composition (Couto et al., 2012; Guerreiro et al., 2016). Data relating interaction between different dietary protein and energy ratio and water temperature changes on digestion condition, gut bacterial community and fat deposition of gilthead seabream fed current aquafeed formulations are scarce. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of two dietary protein and dietary energy ratio (DP/DE) during temperature changes on growth, feed efficienc , fat deposition, plasma biochemistry, digestive enzyme activity and gut bacterial community of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata).