UTILIZATION OF Durio zibethinus RIND CRUDE EXTRACTION FOR IMMUNOSTIMULATION AGAINST BACTERIAL CHALLENGE IN NILE TILAPIA Oreochromis niloticus  

Supachok Songsiri*, Pattareeya Ponza and Supat Ponza
 
 Program of Fisheries Science
 Department of Agricultural Science,
 Faculty of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment
 Naresuan University
 Phitsanulok province 65000, Thailand
 Corresponding author email supatp@nu.ac.th
 

Durian rind is considered agricultural waste which is still being usable for tilapia feed since there are nutrients and polysaccharide gel which is important as immunostimulant. This study therefore aimed to observe the effect of including crude extract of durian rind in fish feed on growth and welfare of the fish. Crude extract of durian rind was prepared by boiling the white part of the rind in water and was included into the fish diet at 2%, 4% and 8% (w/w), along with control group (0%) as shown in Table 1. Tilapia fingerlings of an average total length 5-6 cm/fish were fed with the experimental diets for 12 weeks. After that, fish was challenged with Aeromonas hydrophila at a level of 3.2 x 105 CFU/fish by intraperitoneal injection. It was shown that fish received 4% of durian crude extract showed non-significantly higher blood count and hematocrit value than the other groups (P>0.05). However, result from bacterial challenge in Table 2 showed that fish fed with 4% durian crude extract exhibited a significantly highest survival rate (67%) among all treatments (P<0.05). This could indicate that durian rind had possibility to be immunostimulant and feed contains 4%PG might be at least in part of enhancing immune responses against A. hydrophila in tilapia. Further investigation of identification gut microbes will be done for more understanding on immune responses activation which will developing the application of plants polysaccharide as immunostimulant in aquaculture.