Intestinal morphology of Thai pangas (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) under probiotic supplemented conditions

Abstract

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of probiotic supplementation on theintestinal morphology of Thai pangasius (Pangasianodonhypophthalmus). The experiment was conducted in15 earthen ponds of 0.75 dec. each. Each pond contained 600 fingerlings/decimal(5.69±1.23 g) and thefeeding trial was performed for 90 days. Commercially available gut nutrient additive, Mutagen and pHFIXER (water additive probiotic) were used in the experiment. Five treatments were conducted each havingthree replicates.Treatment 1 (T1) was provided with gut probiotics, treatment 2 (T2) with water probiotics,Treatment 3 (T3) with50% gut probiotic and 50% water probiotic; Treatment 4 (T4) with prebiotic (yeast andrice starch) and 50% gut and 50% water probiotic.Treatment 5 (T5) was designed as control. Fishes were fedtwice a day at the rate of 10-5% of body weight. Samplings were carried out fortnightly where gut sampleswere collected for histology and water quality parameters were recorded. All water quality parameters werefound to be favorable for fish culture. Histological analysis of the gastrointestinal tract revealed that foldlength, width and enterocyte height were significantly larger (p<0.05) in fish of T3 and T4compared to thoseof T1, T2, T5. Thus, probiotic supplementation can improve the intestinal morphology of Thai pangasiuswhich may increase the nutrient absorption in fish and thereby increase the digestion capacity.