Re-evaluation of Dietary Methionine Requirement by Plasma Methionine and Ammonia Concentrations in Surgically Modified Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss

This study was designed to re-evaluate the dietary methionine requirement by means of the plasma methionine and ammonia concentrations in surgically modified rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss. A total of 35 rainbow trout averaging 505 +/- 6.5 g (initial body weight, mean +/- SD) were randomly distributed into seven groups with five fish in each group. After 48 h of feed deprivation, each group of fish was fed one of seven L-amino acid based diets containing 0.5% cystine and graded levels of methionine (0.25, 0.40, 0.50, 0.60, 0.70, 0.80 or 0.95% of diet, dry matter bases) by intubation at 1% body weight on dry matter basis. Blood samples were taken at 0, 5 and 24 h after intubation. Post-prandial plasma free methionine concentrations (PPmet, 5 h after intubation) and post-absorptive plasma free methionine concentrations (PAmet, 24 h after intubation) of fish fed diets containing 0.60% or higher methionine were significantly (p<0.05) higher than those of fish fed diets containing 0.50% or lower methionine. PPmet and PAmet in fish fed diets containing 0.60% or higher methionine were not significantly different except PPmet of fish fed diet containing 0.95% methionine. Postprandial plasma ammonia concentrations (PPA, 5 h after intubation) of fish fed diets containing 0.70% or higher methionine were significantly higher than those of fish fed diets containing 0.60% or lower methionine, and PPA of fish fed diets containing 0.25 and up to 0.60% methionine were not significantly different from each other. Broken-line model analyses on PPmet, PAmet, and PPA indicated that the dietary methionine requirement of rainbow trout was between 0.59 (1.69) and 0.67 (1.91) % of diets (% dietary protein bases) when the diets contained 0.5% cystine.