Indian Journal of Animal Research

The effects of dietary probiotics on growth performance, innate immunity and digestive enzymes of silver pomfret were investigated. Compared to the control, diets supplemented with Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus plantarum and Clostridium butyricum caused significant improvements of growth performance, including final weight, weight gain, specific growth rate and feed conversion rate. A better growth performance among probiotic treatments was obtained in fish fed B. subtilis. To reveal the effects of these three probiotics on innate immunity of silver pomfret, lysozyme activity, SOD activity and IgM concentrations were examined. Results showed that silver pomfret fed diets containing C. butyricum, L. plantarum and B. subtilis had led to an enhanced innate response, notably higher lysozyme activity, SOD activity and IgM concentrations, as recorded after 30 and 60 days of feeding. In addition, study of different digestive enzymes viz lipase, protease and amylase activities showed significant higher values in fish fed the probiotic diets in comparison to the untreated group. These findings demonstrated that administration of C. butyricum, L. plantarum and B. subtilis can improve growth performance through enhanced immune response and digestive enzyme activity in silver pomfret. Furthermore, the B. subtilis is highly recommended as dietary probiotics in silver pomfret.