A UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE PUBLICATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE Occurrence of Thiaminase in Some Common Aquatic Animals of the United States and Canada 1971 SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC REPORT-FISHERIES Na 631 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Maurice H. Stans, Secretary NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION Dr. Robert M. White, Administrator NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE Philip M. Roedel, Director Occurrence of Thiaminase in Some Common Aquatic Animals of the United States and Canada By R. A. GREIG and R. H. GNAEDINGER Special Scientific Report—Fisheries No. 631 Seattle, Washington July 1971 CONTENTS Page Introduction 1 Explanation of the tables 2 Discussion 2 Literature cited 3 TABLES 1. Thiaminase presence in freshwater animals 4 2. Thiaminase presence in marine animals 6 in Occurrence of Thiaminase in Some Common Aquatic Animals of the United States and Canada By R. A. GREIG National Marine Fisheries Service Technological Laboratory, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48107 and R. H. GNAEDINGER Pet Food Nutritional Research, Ralston-Purina Company, Checkerboard Square, St. Louis, Missouri 63199 ABSTRACT Two tables are presented that survey the presence or absence of thiaminase in freshwater and marine fish and shellfish. INTRODUCTION vitally important to animal feeders, particu- larly mink ranchers, for safety and economic The presence of thiaminase in fish that are reasons. routinely used raw in rations for animals can Also, scientific researchers at times need to cause a dietary deficiency. The disease in mink consider whether or not an aquatic animal is commonly called Chastek paralysis (Green, involved in their research contains thiaminase. Evans, and Carlson, 1937). Knowledge about For example, in biological research where the presence or absence of thiaminase in aquatic fishes are held in aquaria for feeding studies animals is therefore important to mink ranch- or other research, the presence of thiaminase ers and other animal feeders, scientific re- in the animals being fed to the fish could pos- searchers, commercial fish vendors, and others. sibly cause a vitamin deficiency or other prob- Thiaminase is an enzyme that destroys lems that could impede the research (Wolf, thiamine (vitamin Bi) and, like many enzymes, 1942). its activity is greatly reduced or destroyed up- Many species of aquatic organisms have been on heating to moderate temperatures (50°- assayed for thiaminase activity in various lab- 100° C). Thus, mink ranchers, for example, oratories throughout the world. Most of these assays, can cook the fish before feeding it to the animals however, were made in conjunction to avoid a Chastek paralysis problem (Lee, with specific research programs that were de- 1948; Gnaedinger and Krzeczkowski, 1966). signed to study a particular species native to However, mink ranchers generally prefer to the area of the research laboratory. As a re- avoid cooking the fish because mink show a sult, the data on the occurrence of thiaminase preference for raw fish and cooking adds to in aquatic specimens is scattered throughout the operational costs. Knowledge whether fish various research papers published over the do or do not contain thiaminase is therefore years. Deutsch and Hasler (1943) and Neilands by Stout, Oldfield, and Adair (1963), the ob- (1947) determined the thiaminase activity of servation was made that fish (yellow perch, a great number of freshwater and aquatic an- white perch, and hake in these experiments) imals. A number of important fishes and shell- generally considered to be thiaminase-free fish, however, were not examined by these could be found to contain thiaminase activity researchers but were investigated by several if the fish was captured at a time when the other researchers. The purpose of this report, animal it fed on was not completely digested therefore, is to combine the listings of thiami- and this animal itself contained thiaminase. nase activity in aquatic animals that have ap- These findings are significant for several peared in the literature and also some recent reasons: (1) It is possible that some of the unpublished work at this laboratory into a animals listed in Tables 1 and 2 were found to comprehensive list of aquatic animals that have contain thiaminase because they were caught been assayed for thiaminase activity. at a time when their stomachs contained un- digested, thiaminase-containing feed. Also, the opposite could be true; that is, those species Explanation of the Tables listed as not containing thiaminase could at The list is presented in two tables: Table 1 times be found to contain thiaminase activity presents the information for freshwater ani- if captured with the undigested thiaminase- information for mals, and Table 2 presents the containing food in their stomachs. (2) The marine animals. The animals are listed alpha- findings could help to explain apparent dis- betically by common name. The scientific name crepancies that sometimes occur in regard to is also shown for each animal; the names were the reported thiaminase activity of a certain sci- taken from the publication (s) cited. The species. For example, burbot is listed in Table entific names relating to the unpublished data 1 as containing thiaminase when the animal of this laboratory are from the list published came from the Great Lakes; whereas, burbot by the American Fisheries Society (1960). did not contain thiaminase when captured from The part of the animal that was analyzed Rainy Lake, Minn. It is possible that the bur- for thiaminase is also shown in the tables. bot feeds on thiaminase-containing animals in Whether the whole animal or, for example, just the Great Lakes; whereas, the animals avail- the viscera was analyzed is important; this able for food in Rainy Lake are thiaminase- point will be further discussed later. Where free. Another possibility is that the burbot the source of the animal was given in the ori- from the Great Lakes was captured with un- ginal reference, this information is also given digested (thiaminase-containing) food in its in the tables. viscera, and the burbot from Rainy Lake was captured with completely digested food in its DISCUSSION viscera. Additional precautions that have to be con- most cases, the whole animal was analyzed In sidered in using the data presented in the tables in Tables 1 and 2. How- for the data presented are: The data do not indicate which animals the viscera ever, for some of the animals, only have the greatest concentration of thiaminase Thiaminase apparently or flesh was analyzed. and which have lesser concentrations of the the viscera more than in any concentrates in enzyme. In many respects this factor may not other part of the animal (Lee, 1948). Some be too important, at least with present lack researchers have found thiaminase to be pi-esent of knowledge about threshold concentrations in the viscera of some aquatic animals but not in regard to the ability of thiaminase to impair in the flesh of that same animal. For example, physiological activity of thiamine. In other Neilands (1947) found that viscera of lobster words, even a small amount of thiaminase in contained thiaminase, but the muscle did not. depending In over 30 marine and freshwater animals the animal could cause concern on studied by Neilands, however, the lobster the intended use of the animal. Thus, a mink proved the only example of such a relationship. rancher is not likely to feed raw, thiaminase- In other experiments by Neilands (1947) and containing fish to mink even though it was shown that the fish contained a relatively low Fish. Wildl. Serv., Fish. Ind. Res. level of thiaminase activity. In this case, the 2(4): 55-59. mink rancher would cook the fish to be on the 5. GNAEDINGER, R. H., and R. A. safe side. According to the results of research KRZECZKOWSKI. by Gnaedinger and Krzeczkowski ( 1966) , it ap- 1966. Heat inactivation of thiaminase pears that fish with various concentrations of in whole fish. Commer. Fish. Rev. thiaminase activity all have to be heated to 28(8): 11-14. about the same temperature time relationship 6. GREEN, R. G., C. A. EVANS, and to give complete destruction of thiaminase ac- W. E. CARLSON. tivity. Therefore, a mink rancher probably 1937. A summary of Chastek paral- should not give fish with "low" levels of thi- ysis studies. Minn. Wildl. Dis. In- aminase a milder heat treatment than fish with vest. 3: 173-177. "high" levels of thiaminase. 7. JONES, W. G. Different analytic methods were used by the 1960. Fishery resources for animal various researchers to obtain the data pre- food. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Fish. sented in the tables. That is, the presence or Lean. 501, 22 p. absence of thiaminase was observed through 8. LEE, C. F. various chemical methodologies or biological 1948. Thiaminase in fishery products: feeding studies; it is possible that one method A review. Commer. Fish. Rev. of detection could show the presence of thi- 10(4): 7-17. aminase, whereas another method would show 9. LEE, C. F., and W. CLEGG. that the thiaminase was absent in the animal. 1955. Technical Note No. 31 — Generally, the chemical methods for thiaminase Weight range, proximate composi- activity are believed capable of detecting low- tion and thiaminase content of fish er levels of thiaminase than the biological taken in shallow water trawling in methods. northern Gulf of Mexico. Commer. Fish. Rev. 17(3): 21-23. 10. MELNICK, D., M. HOCHBERG, and LITERATURE CITED B. L. OSER. 1945. Physiological availability of the 1. AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. vitamins. II. The effect of dietary 1960. A list of common and scien- thiaminase in fish products. J. Nutr. tific names of fishes from the Unit- 30(2): 81-88. ed States and Canada. 2nd ed. 11. NEILANDS, J. B.