Abstract
Natural agents such as curcumin may have the potential to enhance disease resistance in aquaculture. In this study, 30 catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), 2 years of age, were allotted to one of 3 treatment groups (n = 10) to receive diets supplemented with 0.0, 0.5, or 1.0% curcumin. Body weights and lengths of fish were taken at 0, 20, 40 and 60 days after starting the fish on experimental diets. At 60 days, blood samples were collected from 9 fish of each group and then were challenged with Aeromonas hydrophila (0.1 mL of 9×106 CFU/mL) intra-peritoneally. Morbidity and mortality was observed daily for 7 days following challenge. Serum separated from blood samples was analyzed for the cytokines, interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-12 (IL-12). Results indicated significantly higher body weights and lengths but lower levels of both IL-4 and IL-12 with curcumin at 0.5 and 1.0% than the control group. At 24 h following challenge with A. hydrophila, mortality was100 (9/9), 33 (3/9) and 22% (2/9) in the fish supplemented with 0.0, 0.5 and 1.0% curcumin, respectively. At 48 h following challenge, two more fish in the 0.5% group died but the fish remaining in 1.0% group survived even after 7 days. Results of this study suggest that curcumin has the potential to enhance performance of catfish and increase their disease resistance which may help in reducing use of antimicrobials in fish farming.
Highlights
The incidence of infectious diseases combined with intensive commercial aquaculture practices are calling for additional and new strategies for disease management
The objectives of this study were to determine the potential of curcumin to enhance resistance against A. hydrophila infection, a Gram-negative bacterium primarily responsible for a disease known as Motile Aeromonas septicemia, or MAS (Hossain et al, 2014)
This study attempted to determine the efficacy of curcumin, a natural active ingredient of Curcuma longa, in enhancing growth rates and modulating disease resistance
Summary
The incidence of infectious diseases combined with intensive commercial aquaculture practices are calling for additional and new strategies for disease management. The administration of antibiotics and other chemical anti-microbial agents is the most commonly used approach to control bacterial infections in fish. Researchers have detected the serious threats associated with antibiotics in global public health. This effect is due to poor efficacy, potential toxicity and increased bacterial resistance from long-term usage of antimicrobial agents (Sasidharan et al, 2014). Natural plant extracts could be one such alternative to enhance non-specific innate immunity and resistance to diseases caused by fish pathogens such as Aeromonas hydrophila. The objectives of this study were to determine the potential of curcumin to enhance resistance against A. hydrophila infection, a Gram-negative bacterium primarily responsible for a disease known as Motile Aeromonas septicemia, or MAS (Hossain et al, 2014). MAS outbreaks are costing the commercial catfish industry millions of dollars in lost
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