Stimulatory effect of dietary alpha ‐lipoic acid on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, liver enzymes, immunity and protection of African catfish, Clarias gariepinus (B.), Edwardsiella tarda infection

AbstractEdwardsiella tarda is one of the most common causes of fish diseases that hinder aquaculture. Oxidative stress in farm animals can induce a number of pathological disorders, production  and general animal welfare. The use of exogenous dietary nonenzymatic antioxidants such as alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) can stop a pro-oxidant state and thus appears to have the potential to modulate the immune system and protect fish from bacterial infection. Thus, this study investigates the stimulat ory effect of dietary ALA on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, liver enzymes, immunity and protection of African catfish,Clarias gariepinus (B.), against an infection withE. tarda. Five isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets (400  g/kg of crude protein) containing ALA at doses of 0.0 (control), 500, 1000, 1500 or 2000 mg/kg diet were served to 300 juveniles of African catfish (mean weight = 8.2 ± 0.2 g) adequately thrice per day for 12 weeks. Thereafter, 0.1 mL ofE. tarda (ATCC 15947; 1.0  × 108 CFU/mL) was intraperitoneally injected into 10 fish from each tank and was monitored for 14 days. The results showed that ALA-fortified diets significantly boosted the fish growth, feed consumption and utilization and feed conversion ratio but no did not affect fish survival rate. The highest fi nal fish weight (g), weight growth (g) and weight gain (%) were all considerably higher in fish fed with ALA-fortified diets (p <  0.05), especially from 1000 to 200 ...
Source: Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition - Category: Zoology Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research