Supplementation with 2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio)butanoic acid (HMTBa) in low fish meal diets for the white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei

This work evaluated the performance of Litopenaeus vannamei to low fish meal diets supplemented with 2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio)butanoic acid (HMTBa). A basal diet with 150.0 g kg−1 of anchovy fish meal was designed. Two positive control diets were formulated to reduce fish meal at 50% and 100% with 1.0 and 2.0 g kg−1 of MERA™ MetCa (calcium salt with 84% HMTBa activity), respectively. Two nearly equivalent diets acted as negative controls, without HMTBa supplementation. A total of 50 clear-water tanks of 500 L were stocked with 2.22 ± 0.19 g shrimp under 70 animals m−2. Shrimp survival (92.3 ± 5.1% and 81.4 ± 8.0%), yield (808 ± 12 and 946 ± 17 g m−2) and FCR (2.17 ± 0.19 and 3.12 ± 0.37) showed no differences among diets after 72 or 96 days, respectively. A significantly higher shrimp body weight and weekly growth were observed for those fed with the basal diet or diets supplemented with HMTBa compared with non-supplemented ones. This study has shown that L. vannamei growth, body weight, survival, yield and FCR were supported by HMTBa supplementation when 150.0 g kg−1 of fish meal was replaced by soybean meal and other ingredients, at 50% and 100%.