Effects of curcumin supplemented diet on growth and non-specific immune parameters of Cirrhinus mrigala against Edwardsiella tarda infection.

Abstract

The present research was conducted to evaluate the effect of curcumin supplement diet (CSD) on non-specific immunity, growth and disease resistance against Edwardsiella tarda infection in Cirrhinus mrigala. Fishes were fed with formulated diet containing curcumin in different graded levels as control (C) (0.00%), T1 (0.25%), T2 (0.5%), T3 (1.0%), T4 (1.5%), and T5 (2.0%) for 45 days. Treatments were maintained in triplicate and each tank was stocked with 20 fingerlings (10.5 g ± 1.4). Fishes were challenged with a virulent strain of E. tarda after 45 days of feeding and relative percentage survival was recorded over 14 days post challenge. The percentage weight gain (PWG), feed efficiency ratio (FER), feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) of fishes fed with curcumin enriched diet were found to be significantly (p < 0.05) better than the control group. Dietary curcumin at the level of 1.5% (T4) showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher RPS (62.5%) against E. tarda infection than control. Blood and serum samples were collected for non-specific immune parameters on 0, 15, 30, and 45 days interval and growth performance was evaluated at every 15 days period of the experiment. The results suggest that fishes feed with curcumin enriched diet (1-1.5%) showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher total immunoglobulin, serum protein, serum albumin, Immunoglobulin, respiratory burst activity and myeloperoxidase activity. Hence, this study revealed that CSD has a potential stimulatory effect on non-specific immunity along with improved growth performance and increased disease resistance against E. tarda infection in C. mrigala