Protective effect of moderate dietary cellulose against antibiotic‐induced growth retardation, blood deterioration and immunosuppression in juvenile yellow catfish ( Pelteobagrus fulvidraco)

Abstract

The long-term use of antibiotics causes multiple side effects. It is vital to find substances that mitigate these side effects. The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of antibiotic stress on the growth and health of yellow catfish and to evaluate the protective effect of supplemented cellulose diets. In this study, the fish were randomly distributed into four groups as follows: Control group (fed with no cellulose), Anti group (fed with antibiotics alone), Anti + MC group (fed with antibiotics and 5% cellulose) and Anti + HC group (fed with antibiotics and 10% cellulose). After 84 days of the experiment, it can be observed that the long-term feeding of antibiotics alone to the fish could lead to a decrease in weight gain, increase in feed conversion ratio (p < 0.05), decline in serum total protein and globulin contents, increase in aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase activities (p < 0.05) and decline in serum immunoglobulin M, complement 3 and 4 contents and lysozyme activity (p < 0.05). Besides, compared with long-term feeding of antibiotics alone, the long-term feeding of antibiotics in combination with 5% cellulose significantly ameliorated the antibiotic-induced changes in growth performances, and haematological and immunological parameters. Overall, our results showed that the long-term feeding of antibiotics can lead to physiological disorder in juvenile yellow catfish. The simultaneous long-term administration of moderate dietary cellulose and antibiotics might alleviate antibiotic-induced growth retardation, blood deterioration and immunosuppression.