Vitamin A and skeletal anomalies in Pacu larvae

Vitamin A (VA) has a central role in the skeletal formation of fish larvae as it participates in the growth and development of cells and tissues during embryogenesis. We evaluated the effect of VA on the incidence of skeletal anomalies in the production of Piaractus mesopotamicus (P. mesopotamicus) larvae. The experiment was carried out using a total of 12,800 newly hatched larvae and included two phases: the first phase – was installed with two treatments A0, Artemia nauplii, and A50, Artemia nauplii enriched with 50,000 UI of retinol acetate (AR), with eight replicates each an distributed in 16 100-L tanks (8 larvae.L-1), the second phase was installed with the larvae for each treatment in the first phase and redistributed in 32 50-L tanks and received four formulated diets supplemented or not with vitamin A: D0, D30, D60, and D120 (addition of 0, 30,000, 60,000, and 120,000 UI of AR.kg-1 of diet, respectively), with four replicates. The feeding transition was performed gradually, for three days, until the live food was suppressed. At the end of the larvae were counted to evaluate the survival rate, and a sample was evaluated for performance, incidence of skeletal anomalies, and expression of genes related to possible skeletal anomalies. The results indicated that the A0D30 treatment favored growth and showed the lowest incidence of skeletal anomalies.