Effects of dietary mannanase on growth, metabolism and non-specific immunity of Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

An experiment was designed to assess the effects of a commercial -mannanase on performance and immunity of tilapia fed plant-based diets. A basal diet was supplemented with 0.0 (control), 0.5 and 1.0g -mannasekg(-1) to formulate three experimental diets. Each treatment contained 4 tanks with 30 fish per tank. Trial lasted 8weeks. Our results demonstrated that -mannanase addition (0.5 and 1.0gkg(-1)) improved significantly (P<0.05) the final weight, specific growth rate (SGR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared with the control (0.0gkg(-1)). There were no significant differences in feed intake (FI) and survival rate (SR) among the 3 dietary treatments (P>0.05). -mannanase supplementation also led to an increase (P<0.05) in amylase, trypsin and Na+K+-ATPase activities in intestine, and an decrease (P<0.05) in aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) activities in serum compared with the control. However, dietary enzyme supplementation had no significant effect on the serum triacylglycerol (TG), cholesterol (CHO), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) (P>0.05). Moreover, the dietary -mannanase supplementation groups exhibited an increase in the total leukocyte counts (WBC), differential leukocyte counts, respiratory burst activity, lysozyme activity and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity compared to the controls (P<0.05). In conclusion, -mannanase addition to tilapia diets improved feed utilization and non-specific immunity resulting in improvements in growth performance.