Abeer E. Aziza¹; W.F. Awadin²; E. Zahran³ and T.I. Mohamed¹

¹Department of Nutrition and Nutritional Deficiency Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, 35516 Mansoura, Egypt.

²Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, 35516 Mansoura, Egypt.

³Department of Internal Medicine, Infections and Fish Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.

Corresponding Author. Abeer Aziza, Department of Nutrition and Nutritional Deficiency Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, 35516 Mansoura, Egypt.

 

Abstract :

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of deprivation and refeeding of diets containing different levels of protein on growth performance, liver histopathological changes and intestinal morphometric in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). One hundred and twenty Nile tilapia fish weighing 35± 0.5 g were randomly distributed into 12 aquarium tanks (10 fish/ tank). Triplicate tanks were assigned for each dietary regimen. Four groups were firstly fasted for 8 weeks then refed for the following 4 weeks on diets containing different levels of protein (26%, 28%, 30%, and 32%). Fish were weighed during starvation and refeeding period.The body weight (BW) of fish fed diet containing 28% & 30% were significantly higher than that of other groups. Condition factor (CF) of fish fed diet containing 30 & 32% CP was higher than that of other groups. Liver of Nile tilapia during starvation showed small hepatocytes. Refeeding results in gradual increase in size of hepatocytes of fish in different groups and with increased villous height, perimeter, area and number of goblet cells (GCs). Our results indicate that a diet containing 28, 30% of CP could be optimal in relative growth compensation after starvation. CF revealed better values in fish fed diets containing 30 & 32% of CP. Moreover, starved Nile tilapia has the ability to recover the normal liver histology after period of refeeding.

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