Effectiveness of bile acids as a feed supplement to improve growth performance, feed utilization, lipid metabolism, digestive enzymes, and hepatic antioxidant status in aquaculture animals: A meta-analysis

• Published in: Aquaculture reports Vol. 36; p. 102121
• Main Authors: Li, Ling, Liu, Tianyu, Li, Jiarou, Yang, Yanchao, Liu, Haiyan, Zhang, Peiyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2024; Elsevier
• Subjects: alkaline phosphatase; amylases; antioxidants; aquaculture; Aquaculture animals; aquaculture industry; bile; Bile acids; blood serum; body weight; carboxylic ester hydrolases; feed additives; feed conversion; feed supplements; freshwater fish; Growth performance; high density lipoprotein cholesterol; immunoglobulins; lipid content; Lipid metabolism; low density lipoprotein cholesterol; lysozyme; malondialdehyde; marine fish; Meta-analysis; nutritional intervention; protein efficiency ratio; proteinases; regression analysis; species; specific growth rate; superoxide dismutase; systematic review; triacylglycerols; trophic levels; weight gain; WGR; LDL-C; ALP; MDA; HDL-C; SD; SE; CNKI; FBW; Lipid metabolism; PSE; Bile acids; CI; SOD; SMD; TC; Meta-analysis; TG; FCR; CAT; PER; HLC; Growth performance; Aquaculture animals; SGR; FE
• ISSN: 2352-5134; 2352-5134
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aqrep.2024.102121

The present systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to quantitatively assess the efficacy of dietary supplementation of bile acids on growth performance, feed utilization and physiological parameters in aquaculture species. Hedges’ g effect size and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated to quantify differences in outcome indicators in an experimental dietary treatment group relative to a control group. The publication bias analysis was evaluated to the robustness of the pooled estimates. Potential sources of heterogeneity were explored using sensitivity test, subgroup analysis, and meta-regression analysis. All analyses were performed using metafor and ggplot2 packages in the program R. Overall, the meta-results indicated that dietary bile acids supplementation caused a significant increase in final body weight (FBW), weight gain rate (WGR), specific growth rate (SGR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), circulating high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), digestive enzymes (lipase, protease, amylase), hepatic superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, serum or plasma lysozyme, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), immunoglobulins, as well as a significant decrease in feed conversion ratio (FCR), circulating triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), hepatic lipid content (HLC), and hepatic malondialdehyde (MDA) content. A moderate or large heterogeneity was identified across the studies for the outcome parameters except hepatic lipid content (HLC). Furthermore, the meta-regression analysis showed that the optimum levels of bile acids as a feed additive were estimated to be 60–188.42, 989.42, 437.43–989.42, 3751.28–3946.59 mg/kg diet for low trophic-level freshwater fish, medium trophic-level freshwater fish, medium trophic-level marine fish, and high trophic-level marine fish, respectively. Therefore, bile acids is a promising growth-promoting and lipid-lowering feed supplement for sustainable aquaculture industry. •The effect of dietary bile acids on growth and lipid metabolism of aquatic animals were quantified by a meta-analysis.•The optimal levels of bile acids were 60–188.42, 989.42 mg/kg diet for low and medium trophic-level freshwater fish, respectively.•The optimal levels of bile acids were 437.43–989.42, 3751.28–3946.59 mg/kg diet for medium and marine trophic-level marine fish, respectively.