Delivery vectors for mineral supplementation in high vegetable meal diets for gilthead seabream (sparus aurata).

Vegetable meals diets can successfully replace fish meals in a large extend in diets for gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). However, even if dietary aminoacids and protein requirements are fulfill, imbalances in other nutrients such as certain minerals may occur and adjusted mineral supplements may be required. Moreover, the availability of these minerals may be significantly affected by the molecular form in which they are provided and by their high liability during feed manufacture or leaching along feeding. Thus, the use of appropriate delivery vectors for these minerals could improve their availability to achieve a more effective mineral supplementation. In the present study, vegetable meal and oil (VM/VO) diets were formulated including the target minerals: Se, Mn, Fe and Zn, in the form of inorganic, organic or encapsulated minerals. Their performance was compared with two diets without mineral supplementation one with the VM/VO formulation and another with a fish meal/fish oil (FM/FO) based formulation.