Growth and immune response of Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) fed diets containing different lipid sources Yanliang Chen 1 , Liqiao Chen 1 , Jian G Qin 2 , Zhili Ding 1 , Ming Li 1 , Haibo Jiang 1 , Shengming Sun 1 , Youqin Kong 1 & Erchao Li 1 1 School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China 2 School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia Correpsondence: L Chen, School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. E-mail: lqchen@bio.ecnu.cn Abstract A 10-week feeding trial was conducted to evalu- ate the effects of dietary lipid sources on the growth and immune responses of Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis. Six isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets were formulated with fish oil (FO), linseed oil (LO), soybean oil (SO), rapeseed oil (RO), coconut oil (CO) and beef tallow (BT) as the sources of lipid with five replicates each. Thirty crabs (2.35  0.14 g) were stocked into each tank and fed twice daily. Weight gain and specific growth rate of crab fed the FO diet were significantly lower than those fed other diets (P < 0.05), except for crabs fed LO diet (P < 0.05). Crab fed the SO diet weighed more than those fed FO diets (P < 0.05). Serum super- oxide dismutase and malondialdehyde of crab fed the FO diet were significantly higher than in other groups (P < 0.05). Crab fed the FO diet had the highest activities of serum phenoloxi- dase, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase and lysozyme (P < 0.05). The fatty acid composition in the liver of crab reflected the change in test diets. Our results indicate that the use of dietary vegetable or animal oils can achieve similar growth performance to the use of dietary FO in Chinese mitten crab, but non-FOs may impair crab immunity. Soybean oil is recommended as a suitable replacer for FO in Chinese mitten crab diet. Keywords: Eriocheir sinensis, fish oil, soybean oil, dietary lipids, growth, immune Introduction Traditionally, fish oil (FO) is the main lipid source in the feed for most species in aquaculture owing to its effective supply of energy and high contents of essential fatty acids, especially n-3 highly unsat- urated fatty acids (HUFA) such as eicosapentae- noic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (Sargent, Tocher & Bell 2002). Over the past 50 years, aquaculture production has increased dramatically and reached 52.5 million tons worth US$98.5 billion (Bostock, Mcandrew, Richards, Jauncey, Telfer, Lorenzen, Little, Ross, Handisyde & Gatward 2010). Up to 2012, FO consumption by aquaculture has accounted for 88% of global supplies (Tacon & Metian 2008). However, the decline of FO production from wild fisheries has resulted in a supply shortage and price escalation of FO (Petropoulos, Thompson, Morgan, Dick, Tocher & Bell 2009). Therefore, it has been a major challenge to find other oil sources to substi- tute FO. Several studies have demonstrated that a significant portion (60–75%) of dietary FO can be substituted with alternative lipid sources without affecting growth, feed efficiency and feed intake in some finfish species (Regost, Arzel, Robin, Rosenl- und & Kaushik 2003; Mourente, Good & Bell 2005; Turchini, Torstensen & Ng 2009). In crus- tacean, although menhaden oil is better utilized by Litopenaeus vannamei than vegetable lipids such as linseed, sunflower, corn, soybean and coconut oil (CO; Lim, Ako, Brown & Hahn 1997), 90% of FO can be replaced by plant-based oils without significant reduction in growth and survival © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1 Aquaculture Research, 2014, 1–12 doi: 10.1111/are.12654