Elsevier

Fish & Shellfish Immunology

Volume 74, March 2018, Pages 649-655
Fish & Shellfish Immunology

Full length article
Effects of dietary Spirulina platensis on growth performance, hematological and serum biochemical parameters, hepatic antioxidant status, immune responses and disease resistance of Coral trout Plectropomus leopardus (Lacepede, 1802)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsi.2018.01.024Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Plectropomus leopardus diets were supplemented with Spirulina platensis.

  • Dietary S. platensis had positive effects on growth, hematological parameters, and immune responses of P. leopardus.

  • S. platensis both activate and suppress different hepatic antioxidant parameters.

  • S. platensis could be considered as potent preventive antigens to Vibrio harveyi for P. leopardus.

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of dietary Spirulina platensis supplementation on growth performance, hematological and serum biochemical parameters, hepatic antioxidant status, immune responses and resistance to the pathogen infection in Coral trout Plectropomus leopardus. The fish were fed for 8-week with diets containing different levels of S. platensis: 0% (C), 2% (SP2), 4% (SP4), 6% (SP6), 8% (SP8) and 10% (SP10) as treatment groups, followed by a Vibrio harveyi infection test for 14 d. The study indicated that dietary supplementation with Spirulina platensis could significantly improve growth performance, and the highest weight gain rate (WGR) and specific growth rate (SGR) were observed in group SP10 (P < .05). Red cell count (RBC), white cell count (WBC), hemoglobin (Hb) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in the S. platensis supplemented groups were significantly higher than those of group C (P < .05). However, the levels of cholesterol, triglyceride and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents, and superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activities decreased with the increasing of dietary S. platensis levels. Compared with group C, the lysozyme (LYZ) and respiratory burst activities (RBA), and immunoglobulin (Ig) and complement contents in group SP4, SP6, SP8 and SP10 increased significantly than those of group C respectively (P < .05). After challenge with V. harveyi, the survival rate in group SP4, SP6, SP8 and SP10 was significantly higher than that of group C, and the highest survival rate was in group SP10 (P < .05). These results indicated that P. leopardus fed a diet supplemented with S. platensis (especially at 10%) could significantly promote its growth performance, improve its hepatic antioxidant status, and enhance its immune ability and resistance to V. harveyi infection.

Introduction

Coral trout Plectropomus leopardus is an important economical marine fish species in China [1]. Recent years, due to its successful development of technique for fry artificial breeding, P. leopardus aquaculture has developed rapidly and widely along the southern coast of China in tropical and subtropical climates [2]. However, when farmed P. leopardus suffers from stress conditions such as high rearing density and poor water quality, it is more susceptible to several pathogens than its wild counterpart. Diseases occurred more frequently resulting in serious economic losses to Province Hainan, especially between July and September every year [3,4]. Therefore, antibiotics, vaccines and some immunostimulants have been used to prevent disease outbreaks in P. leopardus aquaculture [5]. However, the intensive use of antibiotics to control the bacterial diseases in aquaculture has led to an increase in antibiotic resistance which is a threat to human health, and the application of vaccines is quite expensive [6,7]. Additionally, antibiotics can kill beneficial intestinal microbial flora and interfere the innate ecosystem which affects the physiology and immunity of fish [8,9]. To avoid such adverse situation, ecofriendly immunostimulants such as microalgae and probiotics have been studied to improve the growth performance, immune responses and disease resistance of aquatic animals [[10], [11], [12]].

Spirulina platensis is a helicoidal, unbranched and filamentous cyanobacterium that composes of various nutritional components, such as antioxidant pigments, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals [13,14]. In previous studies, many researchers have confirmed that supplementation of S. platensis has positive effects on growth performance, skin pigmentation and body composition in different fish species, such as Guppy Poecilia reticulata [15], African Sharptooth Catfish Clarias gariepinus [16], Golden Pompano Trachinotus ovatus [17] and Queen loach Botia dario [18]. In recent years, S. platensis received more attention mainly as it can improve immunity and disease resistance of Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus [19,20], Great Sturgeon Huso huso [21] and Olive Flounder Paralichthys olivaceus [22].

However, little is known about the effects of S. platensis on growth performance, antioxidant abilities, immunity and disease resistance for P. leopardus. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of dietary S. platensis on growth performance, hematological and serum biochemical parameters, hepatic antioxidant status, immune responses and disease resistance to the pathogen infection of P. leopardus, which would encourage its use as a potential immunostimulant to feed additive.

Section snippets

Experimental diets

Since the crude protein level of S. platensis and soy protein concentrate was nearly similar [17], the dietary soy protein concentrate was substituted for the alga. Six diets were formulated to contain 0% (C), 2% (SP2), 4% (SP4), 6% (SP6), 8% (SP8) and 10% (SP10) S. platensis (Yuequn Ocean Biological Research Development Co., Guangdong, China). Ingredients and proximate compositions of the experimental diets were presented in Table 1. Ingredients were weighed according to the feed formulation,

Effects of dietary S. platensis on growth performance in P. leopardus

Growth performance of fish fed with different experimental diets was shown in Table 2. Both WGR and SGR were apeared a dose-dependent increase, and the highest WGR and SGR were observed in 10% S. platensis enriched diet (P < .05). On the other hand, dose related decreasing was observed in FCR, and the highest decrease was detected in SP10 group. The CF ranged from 2.42 to 2.65, also the SR fluctuated from 95.65% to 97.41%. No significant variations were detected on the CF and SR among all

Discussion

During the feeding trial, all the experimental diets containing the S. platensis were well accepted by the experimental fish. The growth of fish showed increasing trends with 2–10% of the S. platensis supplemented, and significant differences were observed in WGR and SGR among SP10, SP8 and C groups (P < .05). In the present study, we observed a significant increase of WGR and SGR in fish fed diets supplemented with 10% S. platensis for 8 weeks. The result revealed that the fish improved growth

Conclusion

In conclusion, our study indicated that P. leopardus fed a diet supplemented with S. platensis (especially at 10% of fed supplement) for 8 weeks improved its growth performance; promoted its hepatic antioxidant status by increasing hepatic T-AOC; enhanced immune ability by increasing LYZ activity, RBA, Ig content, complement content and the levels of hematological parameters (RBC, WBC and Hb); decreased the levels of cholesterol and triglyceride. Additionally, dietary supplementation of S.

Acknowledgements

This project was financially supported by the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, CAFS (NO. 2018 ZD 01, NO. 2015 TS 19 and NO. 2015 TS 20), the Special Scientific Research Funds for public welfare industry (Agriculture NO. 201403011).

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