Dietary supplementation with probiotic and butyrate for Litopenaeus vannamei in pre-nursery

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the diet supplementation with sodium butyrate, probiotic (Lactobacillus plantarum) and their interaction, in the diet for post-larvae of the Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) in pre-nursery. We used the following treatments during the entire experimental period: (1) Probiotic 1x10⁸ UFC/g, sodium butyrate 2%, (3) probiotic 1x10⁸ UFC/g + sodium butyrate 2%, (4) control (Base diet). In all treatment we added culture medium in the same doses as in the probiotic treatments. We used 16 experimental units of 60L each, with the bottom U-shaped, stocked with 2,880 post-larvae 5. Fifteen days later, regardless the presence or absence of the probiotic, shrimps from treatment with butyrate had higher survival (p = 0.0039) and lowest individual dry weight (p = 0.0043). No morphological changes were observed in the gut of post-larvae in any treatment. Therefore, the diet supplementation with sodium butyrate increases the survival of shrimp post-larvae of in the pre-nursery phase, without causing morphological changes in its gut.