Effects of Sunlamp-Based Lighting Mode on Growth Performance, Survival Rate, Stress Response, and Oxidative Stress of Juvenile Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis)in a Greenhouse
HIGHLIGHTS Artificial sunlamp with the main components of UV light, visible light was brought into the large-scale farming experiment of Chinese soft-shelled turtle in greenhouse. The effects of different lighting modes on the growth performance, survival rate, stress response, and oxidative stress of juvenile Chinese soft-shelled turtle were studied. Lighting mode had significant impacts on survival rate, stress and oxidative stress of Chinese soft-shelled turtle. Lighting the basking area only is the optimal lighting mode for soft-shelled turtle in greenhouse, and this lighting mode cause less stress of Chinese soft-shelled turtle. ABSTRACT To investigate the effects of sunlamp-based lighting mode on the growth performance, survival rate, stress response, and oxidative stress of juvenile soft-shelled turtle in greenhouse, four kinds of lighting modes with three replicates, including lighting the basking area and water simultaneously (LBW), lighting the water only (LW), lighting the basking area only (LB) and no light (NL), were set in this experiment. Results showed that the final weight, weight gain rate and specific growth rate showed no significant differences among the treatments. The survival rate was significantly lower in LBW than that in NL, while no significant differences were observed between NL, LB and LW. On the physiological level, serum cortisol level was significantly lower in LB compared to the other two treatments with light and glucose level was significantly lower in LB than that in LW and NL. With regard to oxidative stress, indexes indicated turtles suffered less oxidative stress in LB. The glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) in LB was significantly lower compared to the other three treatments. The total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in LB, as well as LW and NL, was significantly lower than that in LBW, and no significant differences were found between LB, LW and NL. Additionally, the complement 3 (C3) was significantly higher in LB than that in NL, which indicated that the turtles had higher immune-related protein in LB. On the whole, results above demonstrated that lighting mode had significant impacts on survival rate, stress and oxidative stress. Therefore, it can be concluded that lighting the basking area only is the optimal lighting mode for soft-shelled turtle in greenhouse. And from the perspective of the breeding welfare, the soft-shelled turtle is suggested to be provided with a separate area for basking when cultured in a greenhouse.