Open AccessEffects of dietary supplementation of a commercial prebiotic P revida ® on survival, growth, immune responses and gut microbiota of P acific white shrimp, L itopenaeus vannamei
Author(s) -
Anuta J.D.,
Buentello A.,
Patnaik S.,
Hume M.E.,
Mustafa A.,
Gatlin D.M.,
Lawrence A.L.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
aquaculture nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1365-2095
pISSN - 1353-5773
DOI - 10.1111/anu.12257
Subject(s) - shrimp , litopenaeus , prebiotic , biology , hemolymph , food science , weight gain , gut flora , microbiology and biotechnology , zoology , ecology , body weight , immunology , endocrinology
Abstract A 35‐day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate growth, bacterial populations of the gastrointestinal tract ( GIT ) and immune responses of L itopenaeus vannamei fed diets containing the commercial prebiotic P revida ® . Diets were formulated to contain P revida ® at 0, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0 or 1.6 g kg −1 by weight. At the end of the study, differences in weight gain and survival among treatments were not significant ( P > 0.05), but denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis revealed that the microbial communities in the GIT changed significantly with the inclusion of dietary P revida ® at different levels. Previda ® was therefore able to selectively modify the microbial communities in the shrimp's GIT . Although individual bacterial species were not identified, enteric populations in shrimp fed the prebiotic at similar levels of inclusion were genetically similar. In addition, shrimp fed P revida ® at 1.6 g kg −1 responded significantly ( P < 0.05) better immunologically with respect to hemocyte phagocytic capacity, haemolymph protein, hyaline cell counts and haemolymph glucose compared with shrimp fed the basal diet. Although shrimp were not exposed to virulent pathogens in this study, the observed upregulation of some of imm‐une responses upon prebiotic supplementation indicates that an improved outcome of such challenges may be anticipated in P revida ® ‐fed shrimp under commercial conditions.