Dietary inclusion of nano-phosphorus improves growth performance, carcass quality, and growth-related traits of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and alleviates water phosphorus residues

• Published in: Fish physiology and biochemistry 2023-06, Vol.49 (3), p.529-542
• Main Authors: Elamawy, Anwar, Hegazi, Elsayed, Nassef, Eldsokey, Abouzed, Tarek K., Zaki, Abeer G., Ismail, Taha
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal Anatomy; Animal Biochemistry; Animal Feed - analysis; Animal Physiology; Animals; Aquaria; Aquarium fishes; Aquariums; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Body weight; Body weight gain; Calcium; Calcium phosphates; Carcasses; Chemical composition; Cichlids - metabolism; Conversion ratio; Diet; Diet - veterinary; Dietary Supplements; Eating; Fatty acids; Feed conversion; Fingerlings; Fish; Fish diets; Fish Diseases; Food conversion; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Gene expression; Growth factors; Growth hormones; Growth rate; Histology; Hormones; Immunity; Insulin; Insulin-like growth factor I; Insulin-like growth factors; Life Sciences; Lipoprotein lipase; Lipoproteins; Morphology; Nanoparticles; Oreochromis niloticus; Phosphates; Phosphorus; Pollution control; Receptors; Tilapia; Water pollution; Whitefish; Zinc; Zoology
• ISSN: 0920-1742; 1573-5168
• DOI: 10.1007/s10695-023-01199-0

Supplementation of phosphorus nanoparticles is a promising strategy to reduce water pollution, improve phosphorus concentration in fish diet, and provide better production quality. We used 300 fingerlings of Nile tilapia that were randomly distributed into 3 groups; each one was attributed to 5 replicates of 20 fish per aquarium with initial weight (gm) (156 ± 1.25). The first diet contained traditional Di-calcium phosphate (D-group), the second supplemented with phosphorus nanoparticles in a dose equal to the previous conventional one (N-D group), and the last one included with phosphorus nanoparticles with the half dose of the conventional phosphorus group (1/2 N-D group). After 3 months of feeding, the N-D group showed the best growth performance including its feed conversion ratio (FCR), feed intake (FI), or body weight gain (BWG). Furthermore, the growth-related gene expression findings considering growth hormone receptor (GHR) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) were upregulated as well. Moreover, whole body chemical composition revealed higher Fe, Zn, P, and crude protein level in the N-D group than the other two groups. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and fatty acid synthetase (FAS) mRNA expression showed a significant increase in 1/2 N-D and N-D groups compared with the control group. To sum up, using of nano-phosphorus particles improved the growth rate and immunity response of Nile tilapia, besides decreasing water pollution.