Effects of dietary yeast inclusion and acute stress on postprandial plasma free amino acid profiles of dorsal aorta-cannulated rainbow trout

In a 4-week experiment, 15 cannulated rainbow trout were fed three diets based on fish meal (FM), Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast (SC) and Wickerhamomyces anomalus and S.cerevisiae yeast mix (WA). Fish were fed daily, and blood samples were collected on day 7 of each week at 0, 3, 6, 12 and 24hr after feeding. In the final week, fish were exposed to a 1-min netting stressor. All essential and non-essential plasma amino acid levels except methionine were similar between fish fed diets FM, SC and WA. Plasma methionine and sarcosine were significantly higher in fish fed diets SC and WA, possibly due to the crystalline methionine level, form or feeding regime. Hydroxy-proline and 3-methyl-histidine were higher in fish fed diet FM, which can be explained by the higher levels present in fish meal compared with yeast. In stressed fish, there were no dietary effects on plasma amino acid levels, but significant increases in taurine and cystathionine were found in stressed compared with unstressed fish. These results demonstrate that yeast-based diets produce similar plasma amino acid profiles to fish meal and suggest that yeast may be a suitable fish meal replacement in diets for rainbow trout.