Effect of Dietary Natural Phytobiotics Mixture on Growth, Body Composition, Immune, and Antioxidant-Related Gene Expression of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Fries

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of a natural phytobiotics mixture (Syrena Boost®) on the growth, feed utilization, body composition, water quality, genetic regulation of growth performance, immune system, and antioxidant pathways in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fries. The Phytobiotics mixture contains Quillaja Saponaria, Star anise oil, and capsaicin. Fries (N=6,000 average weight 0.01 ± 0.012g) were randomly assigned to 12 aquatic compartments (500 fries per compartment). The fries were divided into four sets: Control set (CS) receiving a basal diet and three sets S1, S2, and S3, the basal diet was fortified with 0.1 g kg-1, 0.2 g kg-1, and 0.4 g kg-1 Syrena Boost, respectively, for a period of 21 days. This study demonstrated significant improvements (p < 0.05) in fish growth performance as well as body composition. In addition, dietary supplementation of Syrena Boost induced up-regulation of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and growth hormone (GH), antioxidant enzymes (CAT, GPX), and immune cytokines (TNF-V, IL-1) genes that can impact the growth, antioxidant capacity and immune system of fries respectively. The total ammonia nitrogen and unionized ammonia (NH3) were significantly reduced by Syrena Boost compared to CS. Consequently, dietary supplementation of Syrena Boost improves Nile tilapia fries’ growth, feed utilization, body composition, and water quality. Moreover, it enhances growth, antioxidant, and immune gene expression. The best dosage was found to be 0.2 g kg-1 Syrena Boost (S2).