title: Effects of dietary Astragalus polysaccharides (APS) on growth performance, immunological parameters, digestive enzymes, and intestinal morphology of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).
abstract: This work investigated the potential immunomodulatory and growth-promoting effects of Astragalus polysaccharides (APS) in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). The dietary supplementation with APS (1500 mg/kg of diet) caused a significant increase in growth parameters (initial and final weight, weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and feed intake (FI), when compared to non-supplemented control basal diet. In addition, APS upregulated the phagocytic activity, the respiratory burst activity, plasma lysozyme, the bactericidal activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and amylase activity. However, it had no effect on serum nitric oxide (NO) or Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. While APS had no effect of intestinal histology, a slight increase in the villi length was recorded. Collectively, our results indicate that dietary APS supplementation could improve the growth performance and the immune parameters of cultured tilapia fish.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Infections and Fish Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt. Electronic address: eman_zahran2000@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Eman
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zahran
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pathology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
authors.forename: Engy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Risha
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pathology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
authors.forename: Fatma
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Abdelhamid
authors.affiliation: Pathology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
authors.forename: Hebata Allah
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Mahgoub
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Nutritional Deficiency Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
authors.forename: Tarek
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D027883:Astragalus Plant / Q000737:chemistry*; D023681:Cichlids / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary; D004063:Digestion / Q000502:physiology; D007422:Intestines / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts; D011134:Polysaccharides
keywords: Astragalus polysaccharides; Growth performance; Immunomodulation; Intestinal histology; Tilapia nilotica