Why You Should Use Thiamin · E

Rationale For Use
Captive animals that consume raw unprocessed fish have unique vitamin requirements compared to animals that consume live fish.  Due to the nature of the diet, the two vitamins of most critical important for captive piscivores are vitamin E and thiamin.

Vitamin E
Vitamin E is recognized as an essential nutrient for all species of animals, due primarily to its role as a fat-soluble, non0enzymatic antioxidant, deficiency symptoms are many and can differ among species (McDowell, 1989).  Muscular dystrophy, fatty livers, anemia, exudative diathesis, and erytrocyte fragility are a few clinical signs of vitamin E deficiency.  Due to its function and interrelationships with other nutrients, vitamin E requirements are difficult to determine.  One primary factor that increases vitamin E requirements is dietary levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).  Vitamin E requirement for dogs is 5-fold higher under conditions of high PUFA intake (NRC, 1985).  The levels of PUFAs found in unsaturated fish oils can dramatically increase the need for supplemental vitamin E, especially those fish oils that have undergone rancidity or those in the process of active oxidative rancidity at the time of feeding.  Therefore, oils from raw fish are likely to exhibit some degree of rancidity prior to being consumed.  In most pet foods, for every gram of PUFA, vitamin E supplementation is increased by 1 I.U. (McDowell, 1989).  Thiamin·E is natural-source vitamin E, which has much higher biological activity than synthetic vitamin E sources (Stuart, 1993).

Thiamin
Thiamin deficiencies can also occur in animals consuming unprocessed raw fish.  Uncooked fish from many species have high thiaminase activity as do tissues from clams, shrimp and mussels.  Thiaminase activity is lower in most salt-water fish tissues compared to freshwater species (Halver, 1989).  The thiaminase enzyme ruptures the thiazole ring at the sulfur bond making the thiamin molecule inactive.  Deficiency symptoms include neurological disorders, edema, anorexia.  Mink and foxes consuming raw fish exhibit "Chastek paralysis" which has classical symptoms (McDowell, 1989).  Thiamin·E is formulated to provide 50 mg thiamin per kilogram of fish.  It has been determined that a seal weighing 80 kg and consuming 4-6 kg fish per day has a daily thiamin requirement of 100-150 mg thiamin (Geraci, 1974).

Last updated on 02/08/02

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