Effect of dietary traditional Chinese medicines on apparent digestibility coefficients of nutrients for white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, Boone

Apparent digestibility coefficients (ADCs) of crude protein (CP), lipid, phosphorus, essential amino acids (EAA), non-essential amino acids (NEAA) and fatty acids were determined for white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). One type of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) comprising a mixture of equal proportions of six herbs and plant materials was used at 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 8.0 g kg−1 in the six experimental diets. ADCs were determined using 0.01% Y2O3 as an indicator. A total of 450 shrimp (initial mean body weight 8.6±0.5 g) were randomly stocked into 18 500 l outdoor concrete tanks. Feces were collected from three replicate groups of shrimp.ADCs of six diets were: CP, 88.39–91.30%; lipid, 61.63–74.36%; phosphorus, 45.38–47.29%; EAA, 90.37–93.28%; NEAA, 89.73–92.10%; saturated fatty acids (SFA), 54.35–66.03%; monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), 61.36–77.56%; and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA)+highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA), 61.33–85.20%. ADCs of CP decreased as TCM increased. However, ADCs of lipid and phosphorus increased as TCM increased except for the diet containing TCM 8.0 g kg−1. AA and fatty acids availability values for test diets followed a similar trend to values of CP and lipid.