Prebiotics in Finfish: An Update - Aquaculture Nutrition: Gut Health, Probiotics and Prebiotics - page 384

osmoregulation capability is very useful in the context of intensive hatchery production where
larval quality is a key factor for successful production.
14.9 CICHLIDAE
The family Cichlidae is one of the largest vertebrate families, containing a number of important
ornamental species, game species and food fish. After carps, tilapias account for the second
largest production volume of food fish with total global production approaching 4 million
tonnes in 2011 (FAO FIGIS 2013). The Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ), Nile-blue hybrid
( Oreochromis niloticus × Oreochromis aureus ) and blue tilapia ( Oreochromis aureus )arethe
most popular food fish species and as such some information is available on prebiotic appli-
cations in these species (Table 14.7). Benefits have been reported with the use of MOS (Sado
et al . 2008; Samrongpan et al . 2008; Shelby et al . 2009), inulin (Ibrahem et al . 2010) and
GroBiotic ® -A (Zheng et al . 2011) in Nile tilapia, and inulin (Wang and Wang 1997) and FOS
(He et al . 2003), scFOS (Hui-Yuan et al . 2007; Zhou et al . 2009b) and MOS (He et al . 2003;
Genç et al . 2007) in hybrid tilapia.
In addition, Ibrahem et al . (2010) reported that dietary supplementation of inulin (5g kg −1 )
increased SGR, survival and nitroblue tetrazolium, and improved resistance of Nile tilapia
against A . hydrophila . However, haematocrit and lysozyme activity was not affected. Shelby
etal . (2009) measured the effect of 2 g MOS kg −1 on serum components, including protein and
Ig concentrations as well as lysozyme and complement activities, in two studies of juvenile
Nile tilapia (12.1 and 14.9 g) fed, but no significant effects were observed. Furthermore, no
protective effect was observed when the fish were IP injected with St.iniae . Zheng etal . (2011)
evaluated the effect of GroBiotic ® -A (4, 8 and 12 g kg −1 ) on growth, muscle composition,
immune response and resistance towards A . hydrophila in an 8 week feeding trial of Nile tilapia
(∼18 g). Inclusion of GroBiotic ® -A significantly increased weight gain and reduced FCR but
had no effect on VSI or muscle moisture, lipid, protein content or catalase, and lysozyme
and superoxide dismutase. However, neutrophil oxidative production (NBT test) and survival
after A . hydrophila challenge were increased with prebiotic supplementation. Readers with an
interest in prebiotic applications for tilapia are referred to the review of Ringø et al . (2010).
14.10 SCIAENIDAE
A number of studies have assessed the efficacy of using prebiotics to modulate the gut micro-
biota of red drum, an important fish species, and the subsequent effects on growth performance,
immunity and disease resistance (Table 14.8).
Burr et al . (2008a) examined the effect of four prebiotics (GroBiotic ® -A, MOS, GOS and
inulin) on red drum (∼500 g) digestibility of SBM based diets. Six experimental diets were for-
mulated and administered for 3 weeks: control diet without SBM (diet 1); basal diet where 35%
of FM was replaced by SBM (diet 2); basal diet + 10gkg −1 GroBiotic ® -A supplementation
(diet 3); basal diet + 10 g kg −1 MOS supplementation (diet 4); basal diet + 10 g kg −1 GOS sup-
plementation (diet 5); and basal diet + 10gkg −1 inulin supplementation (diet 6). The results
showed that in SBM based diets GroBiotic ® -A, MOS and GOS supplementation increased
ADCs of protein and energy on a par with those of the FM based diet (diet 1). Additionally,