The effect of dietary supplementation with Clostridium butyricum on the growth performance, immunity, intestinal microbiota and disease resistance of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the effects of dietary Clostridium butyricum on the growth, immunity, intestinal microbiota and disease resistance of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Three hundreds of tilapia (56.21 ± 0.81 g) were divided into 5 groups and fed a diet supplemented with C. butyricum at 0, 1 x 104, 1 x 105, 1 x 106 or 1 x 107 CFU g-1 diet (denoted as CG, CB1, CB2, CB3 and CB4, respectively) for 56 days. Then 45 fish from each group were intraperitoneally injected with Streptococcus agalactiae, and the mortality was recorded for 14 days. The results showed that dietary C. butyricum significantly improved the specific growth rate (SGR) and feed intake in the CB2 group and decreased the cumulative mortality post-challenge with S. agalactiae in the CB2, CB3 and CB4 groups. The serum total antioxidant capacity and intestinal interleukin receptor-associated kinase-4 gene expression were significantly increased, and serum malondialdehyde content and diamine oxidase activity were significantly decreased in the CB1, CB2, CB3 and CB4 groups. Serum complement 3 and complement 4 concentrations and intestinal gene expression of tumour necrosis factor α, interleukin 8, and myeloid differentiation factor 88 were significantly higher in the CB2, CB3 and CB4 groups. Intestinal toll-like receptor 2 gene expression was significantly upregulated in the CB3 and CB4 groups. Dietary C. butyricum increased the diversity of the intestinal microbiota and the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria (such as Bacillus), and decreased the relative abundance of opportunistic pathogenic bacteria (such as Aeromonas) in the CB2 group. These results revealed that dietary C. butyricum at a suitable dose enhanced growth performance, elevated humoral and intestinal immunity, regulated the intestinal microbial components, and improved disease resistance in tilapia. The optimal dose was 1 x 105 CFU g-1 diet.

Clostridium butyricum: a promising probiotic confers positive health benefits in aquatic animals

“…2019b; Li et al . 2019c). The mechanism of C. butyricum to improve the growth performance may be related to a healthy intestine micro‐ecological environment through an increase in the activities of digestive enzymes (amylase, protease and lipase) and SCFA contents (Duan et al .…”

“…C. butyricum can improve intestinal mucosal cell integrity in fish (Li et al . 2019c). Moreover, C. butyricum can grow and adhere to the intestinal epithelial cells (Pan et al .…”

“…2019; Li et al . 2019c). This would reduce and prevent the pathogens via the competition for living space (Pan et al .…”

“…2019b; Li et al . 2019c), thereby improving the immune functions in aquatic animals, furthermore the improvement in the resistance of aquatic animals on infectious pathogens (including bacteria and viruses) (Li et al . 2019a; Li et al .…”

“…However, in another recent study, the administration of C. butyricum (at 1.0 × 10 5 cfu per g diet) can increase specific growth rate and feed intake, but not FCR, in tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) (Li et al . 2019c). Additionally, Poolsawat et al .…”