article · Animals
Dietary supplementation with activated charcoal enhances growth performance, immune function, and stress resistance in juvenile Nile tilapia. Feeding fish diets containing activated charcoal for eight weeks improved feed intake, overall weight gain, and feed efficiency compared to a standard diet. It also raised key immune markers, including lymphocyte counts, total protein, and lysozyme activity, whilst lowering indicators of liver strain and oxidative damage. Following subsequent exposure to a sub-lethal concentration of the pesticide imidacloprid, fish given activated charcoal displayed higher survival rates and accumulated significantly lower pesticide residues in their liver and edible flesh. Statistical modelling indicated that an inclusion rate of 14.30 grams of activated charcoal per kilogram of feed produced the greatest reduction in blood glucose and oxidative stress markers, offering a targeted feeding strategy to counteract pesticide toxicity.
Agricultural pesticide run-off into aquatic ecosystems threatens farmed fish health and poses safety risks for human consumers. Identifying practical feed additives that protect fish against toxic contaminants supports sustainable aquaculture production. This research demonstrates that activated charcoal can boost fish immunity, improve growth, and reduce the accumulation of harmful pesticide residues in fish tissues.
Aquafeed manufacturers and commercial fish farmers could apply this research to formulate protective diets for tilapia reared in waterways affected by agricultural pesticides. The intervention is applied and tested at an experimental trial stage with a clear dosage recommendation of 14.30 grams per kilogram of feed. Validation under commercial farm conditions and economic feasibility assessments will be necessary to advance this feed additive toward broad market adoption.
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The existing study was designed to assess the influences of dietary activated charcoal (AC) on the growth performance, immune responses, antioxidative status, and its mitigating roles against the physiological responses of Nile tilapia exposed a sub-lethal dose of a neonicotinoid agriculture pesticide, namely, as imidacloprid (IMID). Nile tilapia juveniles were fed on diets supplemented with graded AC levels as 0 (control), 5, 10, 15, and 20 g/kg diet for eight weeks. Growth, hemato-biochemical indices, and antioxidant and immune responses of fish in all groups were evaluated at the end of the feeding experiment. Afterward, fish in all experimental groups were subjected to a sub-lethal dose of IMID (0.0109 μg/L) for two weeks. Then, fish mortalities, stress indicators, and IMID residual levels in liver and flesh were examined. Results of the feeding experiment showed that total feed intake, weight gain, final body weights, and feed efficiency ratio were significantly increased in all AC groups compared with the control group. The survival rate was 100% in all experimental groups. No statistical differences were observed in the hematological picture of all experimental groups except the lymphocyte count, which was significantly increased in all AC groups compared to the control group. Total protein, albumin, globulin, nitric oxide levels, lysozyme, and respiratory burst activities were significantly increased in all AC groups. Serum alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, alkaline phosphatase activities, and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were significantly decreased in all AC groups compared with the AC0 group. After exposure to a sub-lethal dose of IMID, survival rates were significantly elevated, and IMID residual levels in liver and flesh were significantly decreased in all AC groups than in the control group. Moreover, second-order polynomial regression showed that dietary supplementation with 14.30 g AC/kg diet resulted in the lowest blood glucose and serum MDA levels. Conclusively, we suggest dietary supplementation with 14.30 g AC/kg diet to modulate physiological responses of Nile tilapia to sub-lethal IMID toxicity.
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DOI: 10.3390/ani11051357
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