Improvement of growth performance, digestive enzymes and body composition of Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus) following feeding on probiotics: Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus subtilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The individual and combinational effects of probiotics on Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus) were evaluated through assessing the growth performance, proximate body composition, digestive enzymes and intestinal morphology. On the basis of feeding with experimental diets, the fish were assigned into four groups denoted as follows: control (basal diet), D-Pro (basal diet + Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis), D-Pro/Yeast (basal diet + B. subtilis and B. licheniformis + Saccharomyces cerevisiae), Yeast (basal diet + S. cerevisiae). Maximum mean weight and length were measured for the fish fed with D-pro regime. weight gain (WG), body weight gain (BWI%), feed efficiency (FE%), protein efficiency rate (PER), lipid efficiency rate (LER), and condition factor (CF) demonstrated the highest values for the fish fed with the diets containing D-Pro and/or D-Pro/yeast. LER and food conversion ratio (FCR) showed the highest performance for the fish received the D-Pro diet. The diets containing D-Pro exhibited higher performance in enhancing the activity of protease and lipase than the one supplemented only with the yeast, whereas the regimes treated with the yeast exhibited higher amylase activity. The fish received D-Pro exhibited the highest protein and fat contents, yet did the lowest contents of moisture and total ash. Taken together, the findings revealed that the dietary administration of the D-Pro and D-Pro/Yeast could improve the growth performance of A. persicus.