Effect of dietary taurine along with the different lipid levels on growth, antioxidant, innate immune responses, digestive, metabolic enzyme activity and health status of pangasius (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus)

High fat diets are provided to fish in order to supply additional energy and spare protein for better growth of fish. Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) is an important nutrient which influences lipid utilization. Here, we investigated how taurine supplementation influences growth, digestive, metabolic enzyme activity, antioxidant, innate immune responses, and health status of pangasius fed with different levels of fat. Five experimental diets were formulated to contain 300 g/kg crude protein and varying level of crude lipid (6%, 8%, 10%, 12% and 14%) with 15 g/kg taurine and designated as T6%, T8%, T10%, T12% and T14%. Pangasius (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) fingerlings were randomly stocked in twelve 150 L FRP tanks with 20 fingerlings (5.22 ± 0.04 g) in each and fed experimental diets for 56 days. The majority of the growth, nutrient utilization, and biological parameters in pangasius showed similarity between high lipid diet and low lipid diet in the presence of taurine. The whole-body composition and blood parameters of pangasius did not show any significant difference (P > 0.05) among high lipid diet and low lipid diet. The lipase activity showed significantly higher (P < 0.05) activity in T14% group when compared with T6% group. The significantly higher (P < 0.05) carnitine palmitoyl transferase were observed in fish fed with 12% and 14% lipid diet, whereas malic enzyme activity was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in T14% group than in T6% group. The antioxidant activity (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase) and innate immune parameters (respiratory burst, lysozyme and antiprotease activity) did not show significant difference (P > 0.05) among high lipid and low lipid diet. Interleukin 1β and transferrin also did not show any significant difference (P > 0.05) among the treatments. The study showed that taurine supplementation can help to counteract the deleterious effects of high lipid diets, such as lipid accumulation and elevated serum cholesterol and TG levels in pangasius. It was also found that both high-lipid and low-lipid diets resulted in similar growth and biometric outcomes in presence of dietary taurine.