Application evaluation of linseed oil as a substitute for fish oil in the commercial diet for juvenile Portunus trituberculatus

Vegetable oil (VO) is increasingly replacing fish oil (FO) in the commercial diet of crustaceans, partly due to a global shortage of FO. But little is known about how different amounts of substitution affect the health and metabolism of crustaceans. A six-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluated the effects of different replacement levels of FO with linseed oil (LO) on growth performance, antioxidant and digestive capacity and fatty acid metabolism in swimming crab, Portunus trituberculatus. Five isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets (480 g kg−1 protein and 120 g kg−1 lipid) were formulated to contain graded levels of LO, and FO was replaced with LO at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively. The results showed that 50% of FO could be replaced by LO without affecting the growth performance and feed utilization for juvenile swimming crab. In hemolymph, 100% dietary replacement of FO with LO, the activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) exhibited significantly higher than those fed the other diets, the concentrations of triacylglycerol (TAG), total cholesterol (T-CHO) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) significantly increased with increase of dietary replacement of FO with LO, which may lead to hyperlipidemia in swimming crabs. The number of R cells and their lipid droplets in hepatopancreas gradually increased with increase of replacement of FO with LO, the results confirmed the occurrence of lipid accumulation in the hepatopancreas. The activities of glutathione (GSH), and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in hepatopancreas significantly decreased with increase of replacement of FO with LO, and crabs fed diet with 50% replacement of FO with LO had higher activities of trypsin and lipase (LPS) than those fed the other diets. Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA), n-3/n-6 PUFA in hepatopancreas and muscle significantly decreased with the increase of substitution level of FO with LO. Moreover, the expression of genes related to LC-PUFA synthesis as well as fatty acid β-oxidation, such as elongase 4 (elovl4), hepatocyte nuclear factor 4-α (hnf4α), retinoid X receptor (rxr), carnitine palmitoyltransferase 2 (cpt2) and acyl-CoA oxidase (acox2), were down-regulated with increase of dietary replacement of FO with LO. In conclusion, it is suggested that the optimal substitution ratio of LO for FO should be less than 50% in the diet of Portunus trituberculatus.