Abstract:
To evaluate the effects of dietary chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) on growth performance, feed utilization, specific and non-specific immunity of hybrid yellow catfish
Tachysurus fulvidraco♀×
Tachysurus vachelli♂, a total of 420 fish with the initial body weight 33—40 g were randomly assigned to 4 treatments with 3 replicates. The fish were fed experimental diets supplemented with 0, 40, 80 and 120 mg/kg COS for 8 weeks. Specific growth rate (
SGR) in 120 mg/kg COS group was significantly higher than that of 0 and 40 mg/kg groups (
P<0.05). Feed conversion rate (
FCR) of the 0 COS group was significantly higher than that of 120 mg/kg group. As the increase of COS dose, the variation trend of protein efficiency ratio (
PER) was opposite to that of
FCR. White blood cell count (WBC) was not significantly affected by COS treatment (
P>0.05). COS significantly increased leukocyte Phagocytic index (
PI) (
P<0.05). Lymphocyte transformation rate (
LTR) increased significantly with the increased COS dose from 0 to 80 mg/kg (
P<0.05), and then remained unchanged after 80 mg/kg dosage (
P>0.05). Lysozyme activity and IgM levels in 80 and 120 mg/kg COS treatment groups were significantly higher than the other two groups (
P<0.05). The present results suggest that, under the current conditions, 80—120 mg/kg supplement of COS (effective dose) can increase the
SGR, reduce the
FCR, promote leukocyte phagocytosis and lymphocyte turnover, and increase lysozyme activity and immunoglobulin levels.