Biotin in practical fish-meal based diet for Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. fry

Groups of Atlantic salmon fry (0.19 g initial weight) were fed a fish-meal based starter diet with different supplements of biotin (0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mg biotin kg^–1) in triplicate tanks for 18 weeks. The basal diet contained 0.3 mg total biotin kg^–1. The experimental design included a negative control diet made by replacing 10% of the fish-meal with spray-dried raw hen's egg white.
Throughout the experimental period the fish grew to about 5 g and there were no significant differences in growth and mortality among the groups of fish fed the fish-meal diets. At the end of the experiment there were no significant differences in biotin level in the liver, while whole-body biotin concentrations correlated significantly with the dietary biotin concentrations. No significant increase in pyruvate carboxylase (PC) activity was found in livers from fish given different dietary levels of biotin. The control diet with egg white resulted in severe growth reduction and increased mortality compared with the other dietary groups. The concentrations of biotin in liver and whole body were decreased in fish fed egg white. Increased levels of glycogen and reduced PC activity in the liver were observed in this group after 18 weeks.
Histology of the gills showed no differences in appearance when fish were fed fish-meal based diets while the addition of egg white resulted in hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the gill tissue and extensive fusions of the secondary gill lamellae.
The results show that there is no need for supplemental biotin in practical fish-meal based diets for Atlantic salmon fry to achieve optimal growth, survival and maximal liver PC activity.