The effect of fucoidan or potassium permanganate on growth performance, intestinal pathology, and antioxidant status in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

Fucoidans are marine algal sulfated glycans that are widely used as dietary additives in aquaculture. These glycans are recognized as beneficial supplements for their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antiviral properties. Potassium permanganate is another commonly used chemical that is used in aquaculture to treat infections in fish. Despite their widespread use, there are few data available regarding the potential sublethal toxicity associated with fucoidan and potassium permanganate treatments of fish. In this study, we investigated the effect of each compound on the growth, intestinal health, and antioxidant status of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Both compounds affected the growth of experimental fish compared with untreated fish. However, while growth parameters were positively associated with the dose of fucoidan administered, growth was negatively associated with the dose of potassium permanganate in Nile tilapia. Fucoidan treatment was observed to improve the intestinal health of fish based upon increases in intestinal villous area, intestinal villous length and width, and the intraepithelial lymphocyte number and decreases in the total intestinal bacterial count compared with untreated fish. Conversely, potassium permanganate induced intestinal epithelium proliferation and villous branching, a histopathological response typically observed with chemical irritants. Both fucoidan and potassium permanganate decreased levels of oxidative and nitrosative stress markers and enhanced the antioxidant status in multiple organs. Taken together, fucoidan dietary application improved the growth, intestinal health, and antioxidant status in Nile tilapia, supporting the use of this compound as a promising feed additive for aquaculture production. Conversely, potassium permanganate baths have negative effects on fish growth at higher doses and appeared to act as a gastrointestinal irritant in tilapia. This study improves knowledge regarding the biochemical and histological responses in Nile tilapia to two widely used aquaculture-related treatments.

Intestinal gene expressions in broiler chickens infected with Escherichia coli and dietary supplemented with probiotic, acidifier and synbiotic.

In this study, we investigated the effects of probiotic, acidifier and synbiotic supplementation on growth performance, mortality rate, intestinal gene expressions, fecal shedding, and organs colonization induced by Escherichia coli in broiler chickens. Six experimental groups were included; negative control group (NC), positive control group (PC), probiotic group (PR), acidifier group (AC), synbiotic group (SY) and colistin sulfate group (CS). Chickens in groups NC and PC were fed a basal diet, while chickens in groups PR, AC, SY, and CS were fed a basal diet containing probiotic, acidifier, synbiotic and colistin sulfate, respectively from the 1st day to the 28th day of age. At 7 days of age, all groups (not NC) were orally challenged with 0.5 ml (1.0 × 109 CFU/ml) E. coli O78. The dietary supplementation of acidifier and synbiotic were sufficient to quell the devastating effects of E. coli infection in broilers. Growth performances represented by body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were significantly improved as well as, mortalities were prevented whilst the ileal pro-inflammatory gene expressions (IL-6, IL-8, IL-13, TLR-4, IFN-γ, LITAF, AvBD-2, and AvBD-9) were significantly downregulated and the anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) was significantly increased. In addition, E. coli fecal shedding and organs colonization was significantly diminished. It was concluded that the addition of both acidifier and synbiotic to the diet of broilers infected with E. coli could modulate the intestinal inflammatory responses induced by E. coli infection and minimized the inflammation-induced damage which resulted in improvement in growth performance, prevention of mortalities and reduction of E. coli environmental contamination.