Effect of Dietary Seaweed Supplementation on Physiological Responses of Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia

Background: The present study aimed to determine the immune and stress responses of juvenile GIF tilapia fed with Ulva seaweed meal supplemented diet. Methods: The study was undertaken with different inclusion levels of Ulva seaweed meal (USM) such as raw (UR) and fermented (UF) Ulva meal (UR-5, UR-10, UR-15, UF-5, UF-10 and UF-15% of diet) and control feed (C) for a period of 60 days. Result: GIF tilapia fed with fermented Ulva meal at a 10% inclusion level in their diet showed the highest growth (41.43 g). Immune parameters such as catalase activity (CAT), super oxide dismutase (SOD), respiratory burst activity (RBA), myeloperoxidase activity (MPA) and serum protein value (SPV) showed significant increases in fish fed with Ulva meal incorporated diet followed by UF-5, Ulva Raw (UR) 5%, control (C), UF-15, UR-10 and UR-1 5 diet respectively. Decreased glucose level was recorded in GIFT fed with fermented Ulva meal at 10% inclusion level followed by UF5, UR5, control diet, UF15, UR10 and UR15 diet. Increased plasma cholesterol, triglyceride, GPx activity, GRA activity and GST activity were recorded in GIFT tilapia fed with fermented Ulva meal at 10% inclusion level followed by UF5 diet, UR5 diet, control diet, UF15 diet, UR10 diet and UR15 diet. GIFT fed with fermented Ulva meal at a 10% inclusion level in their diet exhibited the highest growth performance (41.43 g) followed by UF5 (41.07 +/- 0.43 g), UR5 (39.65 +/- 0.36 g), control (39.09 +/- 0.20 g), UF15 (38.67 +/- 0.26 g), UR10 (38.47 +/- 1.47 g) and UR15 (35.77 +/- 0.35 g) diet. GIF tilapia fed with UF10 diet showed lowest FCR (1.34 +/- 0.00), highest SGR (0.99 +/- 0.00) and PER (2.37 +/- 0.07) followed by UF5 diet, UR5 diet, control diet, UF15 diet, UR10 diet and UR15 diet. One-way ANOVA data analysis and followed by Tukey's test for conducting pair wise comparisons at significance level of 0.05. GIFT tilapia fingerlings had significant differences (P<0.05) among the different experimental diets. From the present experiment, it could be concluded that, Ulva meal incorporation at 10% in the diets increases immune responses in GIF tilapia.