Effect of poultry offal silage with or without betaine supplementation on growth performance, intestinal morphometry, spleen histomorphology of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fingerlings

Abstract

Fishmeal (FM) is the main protein source in fish feed. However, it is quite expensive due to its limited resources. Therefore, finding a dietary alternative to the FM to sustain fish production is crucial, and the current study was performed to assess the impact of poultry offal silage (POS) with or without betaine supplementation; as an effective and cheaper alternative to FM; on feed efficiency, growth performance, spleen morphology and intestinal morphometry of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fingerlings. Four dietary treatments were formulated: (1) FM based diet, (2) FM‐B; FM diet +0.7% betaine, (3) POS diet and (4) POS‐B; POS diet +0.7% betaine. Each dietary treatment consisted of three replicates (n = 10/replicate), and the experiment was continued for 16 weeks. By the end of the experiment, spleen and intestine specimens were collected from 15 fish (n = 5/replicate) for histopathological assessment. The results were statistically analysed using GLM procedures of SAS 9.4. Feed efficiency increased in both POS‐B and FM‐B groups (p = 0.01), while body weight and body weight gain showed only weak tendencies towards an increase (p = 0.10 and 0.12, respectively). The villi length was the highest in POS‐B fed group (p < 0.01). In addition, melanomacrophage centres of the spleen increased in both betaine‐supplemented groups (p < 0.01). From our findings, we conclude that betaine supplementation with poultry offal silage improved production performance and immune status of Nile tilapia fish.

The Dietary Mixture of Betaine, Lactic Acid Bacteria, and Exogenous Digestive Enzymes Enhanced the Growth Performance, Intestinal Health, and Immunity of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Grown in Outdoor Concrete Tanks

“…Concisely, Hassaan et al (2021) concluded that Nile tilapia fed the mixture of digestive enzymes and LAB had improved intestinal morphometrical features. Further, Nile tilapia-fed betaine displayed improved histo-morphological features (Eissa et al, 2021).…”

“…The inclusion of betaine in aquafeed resulted in high feed intake and growth performance of several aquatic animals (Ghosh et al, 2019;Shi et al, 2021). In Nile tilapia, betaine supplementation enhanced the growth performance and utilization of plant-based feeds (Eissa et al, 2021;Ismail et al, 2020).…”

Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis) Peel Powder with Xylanase Supplementation Improved Growth Performance, Antioxidant Status, and Immunity of Broiler Chickens

“…By 2050, the global population is estimated to reach approximately 9.7 billion persons (Abdelatty et al 2018). To help meet the nutritional demands of the growing global population, substantial quantities of conventional poultry feedstuffs, such as corn and soybeans, are being reallocated from animal production to human nutrition purposes (Eissa et al 2021). With this shift, there has been an increased competition between livestock and poultry industries and human populations for these feedstuffs which has resulted in their limited availability and increased costs (Bakeer et al 2021).…”