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. 2025 Apr 20;14(4):447.
doi: 10.3390/biology14040447.

Effects of Varying Dietary Concentrations of Menadione Nicotinamide Bisulphite (VK3) on Growth Performance, Muscle Composition, Liver and Muscle Menaquinone-4 Concentration, and Antioxidant Capacities of Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) Alevins

Han Zhang  1   2   3 , Leyong Yu  2   4 , Abdur Rahman  2   5   6 , Sattanathan Govindharajan  2   5 , Lingyao Li  2   7 , Hairui Yu  1   2   3 , Muhammad Waqas  8
Affiliations

Effects of Varying Dietary Concentrations of Menadione Nicotinamide Bisulphite (VK3) on Growth Performance, Muscle Composition, Liver and Muscle Menaquinone-4 Concentration, and Antioxidant Capacities of Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) Alevins

Han Zhang et al. Biology (Basel). .

Abstract

Vitamin K3 (VK3) is an essential micronutrient for fish growth and metabolism. To determine the optimal required dietary concentration of VK, a 12-week-long trial was planned to investigate the impact of VK3 on growth performance, muscle composition, liver menaquinone-4 (MK-4), whole-body MK-4 concentration, and antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in coho salmon alevins. A total of 2100 coho salmon alevins were divided into twenty-one tanks, with 100 alevins in each tank, and three tanks represented one group. Each of the seven groups were randomly assigned to one of the experimental diets formulated with varying levels of menadione nicotinamide bisulphite (VK3), i.e., 0.16 (control), 5.25, 10.22, 14.93, 20.51, 40.09, and 59.87 mg/kg, respectively. The results revealed that the inclusion of VK3 from 5.25 to 40.09 mg/kg improved (p < 0.05) the survival rate (SR), weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), and feed conversion ratio (FCR), while no effect (p > 0.05) was observed on the hepatosomatic index (HSI), viscerosomatic index (VSI), Fulton's condition factor (K), and muscle composition. The whole-body MK-4, liver MK-4, liver T-AOC, total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), and catalase (CAT) enzymes were also increased (p < 0.05). Malondialdehyde (MDA) contents were reduced (p < 0.05) in all supplemented groups with a decreasing trend. The predicted optimal required dietary concentrations of VK3 were found to be 34.0, 43.5, 38.54, and 31.97 mg/kg based on WG, SGR, liver MK-4 concentration, and T-AOC, respectively, by quadratic regression analysis. It is concluded that the dietary VK3 has improved the growth performance and antioxidant status in alevins during early development in the range of 31.97 to 43.5 mg/kg diet.

Keywords: antioxidant; aquaculture; growth; menadione; menaquinones; vitamin.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors Abdur Rahman, Sattanathan Govindharajan, and Lingyao Li were employed by the company “Conqueren Leading Fresh Science & Technology Inc., Ltd.; Shandong Conqueren Marine Technology Co., Ltd.” The remaining all authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. So, all authors certify that they have no conflicts to declare. The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article, or the decision to submit it for publication.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Polynomial quadratic regression analysis of WG with graded levels of vitamin K3 in coho salmon alevins predicted that the optimum vitamin K3 requirement for WG was 34 mg/kg. Abbreviation: WG, weight gain; dotted line shows X value and complete curve line shows trend.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Polynomial quadratic regression analysis of SGR with graded levels of vitamin K3 in coho salmon alevins predicted that the optimum vitamin K3 requirement for SGR was 43.50 mg/kg. Abbreviation: SGR, specific growth rate; dotted line shows X value and complete curve line shows trend.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Polynomial quadratic regression analysis of liver vitamin K (MK-4) with graded dietary vitamin K3 levels for coho salmon alevins predicted that the optimum vitamin K3 requirement for liver MK-4 was 38.54 mg/kg. Abbreviations: MK-4, menaquinone-4; dotted line shows X value and complete curve line shows trend.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Polynomial quadratic regression analysis of T-AOC with graded levels of vitamin K3 in coho salmon alevins predicted that the optimum vitamin K3 requirement for T-AOC was 31.97 mg/kg. Abbreviations: T-AOC, total antioxidant capacity; dotted line shows X value and complete curve line shows trend.
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