Dietary Supplementation with Ginger Zingiber officinale improves the Oxidative Stress Status and Plasma Parameters in Farmed Gilthead Sea Bream Sparus aurata

This work aimed to investigate the potential effect of the dietary ginger Zingiber officinale supplement on the gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata growth performance, antioxidant response, plasma parameters and flesh quality. Four experimental diets were designed containing different levels of ginger powder: 0 (control), 0.4, 0.8 and 2%. Fish were fed a control or one of the supplemented diets for 60 days. Our results showed that treatments with the highest levels of ginger (2%) improve hepatic antioxidative abilities by increasing the liver catalase activity (CAT) and reducing thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). Moreover, our results demonstrated that plasma cholesterol (CHO) and triglyceride (TG) contents were significantly lower in fish fed 2% supplemented diet and that the bactericidal activity against Flexibacter maritimus as pathogenic bacterium was significantly enhanced by the dietary intake of the ginger in all treated groups. However, the growth performance and the flesh quality showed no difference among the ginger treatments and control group. In conclusion, dietary Z. officinale powder at the rate of 2% could be used as a feed additive to improve the antioxidant and antibacterial defenses in the gilthead sea bream farming.