Vitamin E Nutrition and Its Effects on the Immune Responses of the Juvenile Grouper

News source: Mariculture Research Center,
Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute
For further information: fengchengwu@hotmail.com, 2003-06-01

Effect of Vitamin E on Immune System

A series of two experiments was conducted to study the effects of vitamin E nutrition on immunity of the juvenile grouper. In experiment 1, the grouper were fed for 12 weeks on one of seven diets containing 0, 7.5, 15, 30, 60, 120, and 240 IU vitamin E/kg dry diet to investigate dietary requirement for vitamin E.

Vitamin E Improved Growth Rate, but Not Immunity

The results indicate that there was a significant difference among dietary treatments in terms of growth, and enhanced growth was observed when the dietary vitamin E was 50-60 IU/kg diet. However, there was no difference in survival rate and immunity. In experiment 2, the grouper were fed for 18 weeks on one of four diets containing 0, 50, 500, and 5000 IU vitamin E/kg diet to investigate dietary vitamin E nutrition and its effect on immunity. The results indicate that there was a significant enhanced immunity when the dietary vitamin E was 500 IU/kg. Thus, the test diet with 500 IU vitamin E/kg was more effective than the diet with 50 IU/kg, in affecting the level of immunity of juvenile grouper.

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