Nutritional Energetics: Definition and Forms of Energy Partitioning

Nutritional energetics: definition
and forms of energy partitioning

Introduction
 Fish requires energy for body maintenance,
growth, reproduction etc.
 Aquatic animals are cold blooded- their
metabolic rate depends on temperature of
water.
 Fish will eat more feed in summer than in winter
among different seasons
 Food requirement of different species varies
according to the nature of animals, feeding
habits, size, environment, reproduction state,
etc.
 Energy
 Energy is defined as the capacity to do work,
and is derived through the catabolism of dietary
carbohydrates, lipid and protein within the
body.
 Energy is therefore essential for the
maintenance of life processes such as cellular
metabolism, growth, reproduction, and physical
activity.
 Bioenergetics
 Study of balance between energy intake
and energy utilization for life sustaining
processes such as
 Maintenance
 Activity
 Tissue synthesis
 Also known as energy budget.
 Animal nutritionists are concerned
primarily with two forms of energy,
chemical and heat.
 Intake energy: is the gross energy
consumed by the animal from their food.
This energy is mainly in the form of
proteins, lipids and carbohydrates
 Faecal energy: is the gross energy of the
faeces and consists of undigested food,
metabolic products and other factors,
such as mucous.
 Digestible energy: represents the energy
that the animal has absorbed from its
food. It is the Intake Energy – Faecal
Energy.
 Urinary energy: is the gross energy of the
urinary products produced by the animal.
 Gill excretion energy: is the energy of
the compounds that are excreted from
the gills. This energy can be high in fish
and may compose a major part of the
energy budget.
 Surface energy is the gross energy lost
in the form of scales and mucous. DE = IE
– FE
 Metabolizable energy: is the energy
available to the animal to conduct the
various metabolic processes.
 ME is the energy in the food less the
energy lost from faeces and wastes
energy.
 Retained energy that portion of energy
contained in the feed that is retained as
part of the body or voided as a useful
product such as gametes. ME = DE – (GE
+ ZE + UE + SE) RE = ME – HE
 Total heat production energy (HE): is
the energy lost from the animal in the
form of heat. The heat is produced as a
result of metabolism and so HE is a
measure of metabolic rate in fish.
Factors affecting Energy Partitioning
 Basal metabolic rate: Body size, oxygen
availability, temperature, osmoregulation,
stress
 Non-basal metabolic rate: gonadal growth
and locomotion
 Body size: Direct relation with metabolic
rate. Metabolic rate increase directly with
increasing body size.
 Oxygen Availability: Aquatic animals
consume O2 either at a rate directly
dependent upon ambient oxygen tension
(conformers) or at a rate independent of
ambient oxygen tensions (Non-
conformers or regulators).
 In Non-conformers, O2 consumption
remains constant until O2 tension in the
ambient water reaches a critical low level
 Temperature: Direct relation with
metabolic rate. Water temperature plays on
extremely important role in energy
partitioning.
 Two effects of temperature can be observed
in aquatic animals. When an animals is
acclimated to a certain temperature and
they introduced to greater temperature, its
metabolic rate will increase. If the animal is
soon returned to the original temperature,
its metabolic rate will return to the original
rate.
 Osmoregulation: Salinity of an
enviroment of fish plays an important role
in energetic cost of osmoregulation.
Freshwater fish live in an environment i.e.
hyposaline to their body tissues and
hence exchange continually, water and
sequester ions. Salt water fish have
exactly opposite problems and spend
energy availing the loss of water and in
excreting ions.
 Stress: Stress results in increased basal
metabolic rate and induced by several
factors. Accumulation of waste products
in water, low O2 crowding, handling,
external disturbances, water pollution,
poor quality feed.
Factors affecting Non-basal Metabolic
rate
 Gonadal Growth: Gonadal growth
results in the diversion of large amounts of
energy away from growth of muscle and
other activities. At reproductive season,
gonads may account 30-40% of fish weight.
 Locomotion: Energy cost of locomotion
is a major part of total energy
consumption, varies between species
depending on body shape and behavioural
patterns.

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