article · Animals
Nile tilapia typically thrive in water temperatures between 26 and 28 degrees Celsius, and exposure to pesticides becomes more hazardous when water conditions are suboptimal. An experiment examined whether adding dietary synbiotics at 550 mg/kg of feed could mitigate the harmful effects of the pesticide deltamethrin on fish reared at a lower temperature of 21 degrees Celsius over a 30-day period. Fish exposed to deltamethrin without the supplement suffered tissue damage across the gills, liver, intestine, and spleen, alongside altered immune and stress-related gene expression. Incorporating synbiotics into the diet alleviated these negative impacts. The supplement upregulated genes linked to antioxidant defences and immune responses, while reducing markers associated with cellular stress and tissue damage. Consequently, synbiotic feeding restored normal tissue structure in deltamethrin-exposed fish by relieving oxidative stress and inflammation.
Fish farming frequently contends with environmental stresses such as unseasonal cold water and pesticide runoff, both of which weaken fish health. Demonstrating that functional feed additives like synbiotics can counteract pesticide toxicity under cold conditions provides practical knowledge for maintaining stock survival, fish welfare, and overall farm resilience against environmental contaminants.
This research provides applied evidence that synbiotics can be formulated into aquafeed to protect Nile tilapia from environmental pesticide exposure and cold stress. Aquafeed manufacturers and commercial fish farmers are the primary target users for this dietary strategy. Based on the 30-day feeding trial, the findings represent applied, experimental research that requires scaling and field testing under operational farm conditions before commercial adoption.
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The optimal water temperature for the normal growth of Nile tilapia is between 26 and 28 °C, and the toxicity of pesticides is strongly related to water temperature. An alternate approach to augmenting the resistance of fish to ambient water toxicity and low water temperature via synbiotic feeding was proposed. In this study, fish were allocated into four groups with 10 fish in each replicate, where they were fed a basal diet or synbiotics (550 mg/kg) and kept at a suboptimal water temperature (21 ± 2 °C). The prepared diets were fed to Nile tilapia for 30 days with or without deltamethrin (DMT) ambient exposure (15 μg/L). The groups were named control (basal diet without DMT toxicity), DMT (basal diet with DMT toxicity), synbiotic (synbiotics without DMT toxicity), and DMT + synbiotic (synbiotics with DMT toxicity). The results displayed upregulated transcription of catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and interferon (IFN-γ) genes caused by DMT exposure and synbiotic feeding when compared with the controls. Moreover, HSP70 and CASP3 genes displayed increased transcription caused by DMT exposure without synbiotic feeding. However, fish fed with synbiotics showed downregulated HSP70 and CASP3 gene expressions. The transcription of IL-1β and IL-8 genes were also decreased by DMT exposure, while fish fed synbiotics showed upregulated levels. DMT exposure resulted in irregular histopathological features in gills, intestine, spleen, and liver tissues, while fish fed synbiotics showed regular, normal, and protected histopathological images. Our results indicated that dietary synbiotics ameliorated histopathological damages in DMT-exposed tilapia through alleviation of oxidative stress and inflammation as well as enhancing the immunity.
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DOI: 10.3390/ani11061790
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