article · “Agriculture for Life Life for Agriculture” Conference Proceedings
Using plant-based immunostimulants offers an alternative to antibacterial drugs in aquaculture, avoiding adverse side effects on fish, the environment, and consumers. An investigation into dietary supplementation with turmeric, rosemary, and thyme evaluated their effects on Nile tilapia. Four diets were formulated with equal nitrogen and energy levels, containing either zero percent or one percent of each individual herb. The supplemented diets significantly boosted weight gain, specific growth rates, and the protein efficiency ratio in comparison to the unsupplemented control. While these botanical additives produced no significant changes in carcass composition or certain biochemical markers, they significantly raised hematocrit and leukocrit levels. Additionally, fish receiving the herbal diets demonstrated higher numbers of nitroblue tetrazolium positive neutrophils. Given their immunostimulatory properties and low cost, these herbs show potential as feed ingredients to help reduce pathogen-related mortality in fish.
Overreliance on antibacterial drugs in fish farming can create harmful side effects for the environment, consumers, and the fish themselves. Identifying natural, affordable plant alternatives such as turmeric, rosemary, and thyme provides practical dietary solutions to stimulate fish growth and strengthen immune defences against disease-causing pathogens, supporting safer aquaculture production.
This applied research demonstrates that incorporating one percent turmeric, rosemary, or thyme into aquafeeds improves growth performance and immune indicators in Nile tilapia. Aquafeed manufacturers and commercial fish farmers could adopt these low-cost herbal additives to formulate functional diets aimed at reducing pathogen-related mortality. The work represents an applied trial tested in fish, positioning it near to practical formulation trials in commercial aquaculture operations.
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Abstract Using of natural plants as immunostimulant in fish is more useful than antibacterial drugs that cause adversely side effects for fish, environment and consumers. Therefore, the present study was to investigate the effects of dietary turmeric (Curcuma longa), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris) as feed additives on growth performance, proximate composition and some immuno-hematological parameters on Nile tilapia. Four nitrogenous (31.43-31.56 % crude protein) and isocaloric (17.90-18.04 kJ/g) diets were formulated to contain 0% (control), 1% of turmeric, rosemary or thyme, respectively. The results reveled that, supplementation with medicinal herbs significantly increased (P<0.05) weight gain, specific growth rates and protein efficiency ratio (PER) compared to those in the control group. Moreover, the medicinal herb additives had insignificant effect on carcass composition and some biochemical composition. Hematocrit and leukocrit levels in the fish fed with turmeric, rosemary and thyme added diet were found to be significantly (P <0.05) higher than the control group. However, leukocyte level among the experimental groups was not significantly differed (P >0.05). In neutrophils of experimental fish groups, there were higher numbers of NBT (+) cells fixed on lamellas than those of the control group. So, based on the current findings together with the low cost and the immunostimulative effect of turmeric, rosemary and thyme it can be recommended to be used in fish feed to minimize the mortalities caused by some pathogens.
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DOI: 10.2478/alife-2018-0020
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