article · Aquaculture Nutrition
Incorporating date palm seed meal fermented with Aspergillus oryzae into the diets of Nile tilapia enhances growth, digestion, and immune function. Over an eight-week feeding trial, diets containing up to 200 grams of fermented meal per kilogram were tested. The supplement significantly improved final body weight, overall weight gain, and specific growth rates in a dose-dependent manner, without negatively affecting feed conversion ratios. Furthermore, the fermented ingredient increased the activity of critical digestive enzymes, including lipase, amylase, and protease, alongside improvements in intestinal villus length and goblet cell counts. Key blood and immune markers, such as red and white blood cell counts, haemoglobin, lysozyme activity, and phagocytic responses, also showed significant improvements. Analysis indicates an optimal dietary inclusion range between 103.3 and 164.8 grams per kilogram of feed.
Aquaculture requires sustainable, cost-effective feed ingredients that maintain fish health and performance. This research demonstrates that fermenting date palm seed meal, an agricultural byproduct, with Aspergillus oryzae creates a functional feed ingredient. Using this fermented meal improves nutrient digestion, gut health, and immune resilience in Nile tilapia, offering a practical avenue to reduce reliance on conventional feed components.
This research is relevant to aquafeed manufacturers and commercial tilapia producers seeking functional, cost-effective dietary ingredients. The work demonstrates applied, tested feeding trials at a laboratory scale, identifying a specific inclusion range of 103.3 to 164.8 grams per kilogram. Commercial adoption would require pilot-scale validation, standardisation of the fungal fermentation process, and supply chain integration with date processing byproducts.
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Five diets were prepared to include date palm seed meal (DSM) fermented with Aspergillus oryzae (ASP) at 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 g/kg diet and fed for Nile tilapia (26.93 ± 0.01 g) for 8 weeks. Fermented DSM significantly affected the final weight, weight gain and specific growth rate in a dose-dependent manner (p = .001) with insignificant differences in feed conversion ratio (p > .05). Dietary fermented DSM significantly increased the lipase, amylase and protease activities (p = .008, p = .001 and p = .01, respectively) and the Hb, RBCs and WBCs (p = .001, p = .005, and p = .009, respectively). The intestinal villus length and number of goblet cells were significantly affected by fermented DSM inclusion (p < .05). Additionally, the total protein, albumin and globulin significantly affected by the inclusion of fermented DSM in a dose-dependent manner (p = .04, p = .045, and p = .03, respectively). Furthermore, dietary fermented DSM significantly altered the phagocytic index, phagocytic activity and lysozyme activity (p = .001, p = .045 and p = .04, respectively). Based on the polynomial regression analysis, the inclusion of fermented DSM at 103.3–164.8 g/kg diet can be used effectively in tilapia diets for improving the growth, digestion activity and immune response.
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DOI: 10.1111/anu.13042
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