RESUMO.-[Efeito imunomodulador da β-glucana usada como aditivo alimentar em jundiás (Rhamdia quelen).]O uso da β-glucana como suplemento alimentar foi avaliado em jundiás. A β-glucana foi adicionada à ração na proporção de 0.01%, e 0.1% e fornecida aos peixes por 21, para avaliar dados hematológicos e parâmetros do sistema imune natural, ou 42 dias, para avaliar ganho de peso e resistência ao desafio com Aeromonas hydrophila. A adição da β-glucana na dieta não afetou o ganho de peso e não induziu alterações hematológicas nem alterações nos níveis de aglutininas e mieloperoxidase sanguínea. No entanto, a atividade hemolítica natural do sistema do complemento foi significativamente maior nos peixes alimentados com β-glucana. Além disso, nos peixes alimentados com β-glucana e desafiados com A. hydrophila, o número de bactérias isoladas do sangue foi significativamente menor, e a sobrevivência ao desafio foi significativamente maior do que nos peixes que não receberam β-glucana. Consequentemente, concluímos que a β-glucana tem potencial imunomodulador quando adicionada à dieta, nas condições experimentais aqui indicadas, e contribui para aumentar imunidade natural e a resistência dos jundiás ao desafio com patógenos específicos. INTRODUCTIONThe occurrence of infectious diseases is one of the major causes of losses in modern aquaculture (Sitjà-Bobadilla The immunomodulatory effects of dietary β-glucan were evaluated in silver catfish. β-glucan was added to the diet (0.01%, and 0.1%) and fed to the fish for 21 days, to evaluate effects on blood and some innate immune parameter, or fed for 42 days, to evaluate growth rate and resistance to challenge with pathogenic Aeromonas hydrophila. We found that adding β-glucan to the diet had no effect on fish growth and no effect on blood cells, or serum bacterial agglutination and serum myeloperoxidase activity. However, fish that received β-glucan in the diet had the natural hemolytic activity of complement significantly higher compared to control fish. Furthermore, fish fed with β-glucan and challenged with A. hydrophila had fewer bacteria in blood and presented a significantly higher survival rate compared to control fish. Thus, we concluded that β-glucan might be explored as feed additive aiming to improve silver catfish innate immunity and resistance to specific pathogen.INDEX TERMS: Silver catfish, Rhamdia quelen, fish, immunostimulants, β-glucan, Aeromonas hydrophila.

Adjuvants are essential to boost the immune response to inoculated antigen and play a central role in vaccine development. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of several adjuvants in the production of anti-bovine serum albumin (BSA) antibodies in silver catfish. Two hundred and seventy juvenile silver catfish (60–80 g) of both sexes were intraperitoneally vaccinated with BSA (200 µg/fish) alone or mixed to the following adjuvants: Freund’s complete adjuvant (FCA), Freund’s incomplete adjuvant (FIA), aluminum hydroxide (AlOH), Montanide, four types of cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) and three concentrations of β-glucan, and the immune enhancing property was evaluated by measuring anti-BSA antibodies in blood samples at biweekly intervals. Our results demonstrated that CpGs ODNs and β-glucan were as effective as classical adjuvants (FCA, FIA, AlOH and Montanide) in promoting anti-BSA antibodies and that the kinetics of antibody production induced by all adjuvants used in our study had a similar trend to that observed in other fish species, with a peak at 28 days post-vaccination. These results may be useful for the selection of adjuvants for vaccine formulation intended for silver catfish and for the development of vaccine and vaccination strategies to other fish species.