The species Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) has grown phenomenally in popularity and has become the second most farmed fish, after carps (FAO, 2023). However, quality and efficiency of feeds are prerequisites for successful Nile tilapia production. In addition, feed quality, acceptability and utilization have significant impact on water quality, growth, survival, and ultimately production of this specie.
Probiotics are reported to improve immune responses, feed utilization and to modulate the intestinal morphological structure and microbiota, thereby influencing the health status of cultured fishes. In our study, a new multispecies probiotic formulation (Slab51®) was employed to evaluate the effect of supplementation on growth and immunity performances, feed utilization and intestinal morphometry of Nile tilapia.
A trial of 60 days was conducted in which Tilapia fingerlings (7.55 ± 1.25 g) were randomly distributed into three replicate aquaria under two different treatments + control groups. The control group received normal feeding at 9% of the biomass (C), the feeding treatment (F) received Slab51 at a supplementation of 3.5% of the control diet and the water treatment (W) received a daily dosage of 6 grams of Slab51 powder in each tank to maintain a bacteria concentration of 107 CFU/L. At the end of the feeding trial, growth performance parameters, feed utilization indices, immunity activity and intestinal morphology were assessed.
The results obtained from this study revealed promising results on the use of the probiotic formulation as supplement in Nile Tilapia Fingerlings. Significant results were evidenced on growth performance, feed utilization, intestinal mucosal fold, width of lamina propria, number of goblet cells and others such as: