Feed-borne biogenic amines: Natural toxicants or growth promotors?
Keywords:
biogenic amines, blue shrimp, toxicity, growth promotionAbstract
The biogenic amines are biologically active compounds synthesized from amino acids. Feedborne
biogenic amines are most commonly synthesized by spoilage microorganisms and are usually
considered to be potential toxins. There has also been interest in aquacultural circles in the potential
chemoattractant properties of these compounds. A subgroup of the biogenic amines are the mammalian
polyamines: putrescine, spermidine and spermine. The polyamines are cationic compounds synthesized from
methionine and ornithine in short, highly regulated pathways. The polyamines are anabolic compounds with
hormone-like properties. It has been proposed that exogenous dietary polyamines may play an important role
in promoting growth and maintaining health. A series of experiments have been conducted with chicks fed a
crystalline amino acid-based purified diet. Chicks were fed dietary supplements of putrescine, spermidine,
spermine and cadaverine. Although all these compounds promoted intestinal tract development, only
putrescine promoted whole body growth. Dietary putrescine was also shown to overcome the toxicity of raw
legumes when added to chick diets. Putrescine was also shown to increase intestinal development and whole
body growth of turkey poults fed a practical diet. Laying hens fed diets supplemented with putrescine had a
decrease in egg shell deformations and increased egg shell thickness. In experiments with blue shrimp
(Litopenaeus stylirostris), shrimp diets were supplemented separately with cadaverine, histamine, putrescine,
spermidine and spermine. Spermine was observed to have the greatest growth promoting potential in shrimp.
Spermine was added to diets at 0, 500, 1100, 2300, 3400 and 4600 mg kg-1. Significant quadratic responses
were seen in final weight, weight gain and feed conversion ratio. Whole body polyamine concentrations were
also altered by diet while trends were seen in concentrations of polyamines in the heptopancreas. It was
concluded that supplemental dietary spermine can promote the growth of blue shrimp and that this effect is
likely due to altered polyamine metabolism. Biogenic amines should not always be considered as potential
toxicants and chemoattractants, therefore, but can also be considered to be non-hormonal growth promotants.
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