Protection of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus from aflatoxin B1 toxicity by dietary supplementation with Fennel essential oil and Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Significant losses in ration industry especially aquaculture resulting from aflatoxins. The effect of supplementing Nile tilapia diet with Fennel essential oil (FEO) with or without Saccharomyces cerevisiae on negative impacts of aflatoxin B1, AFB1 (200 ppb) for one month was studied. Two hundred and forty Nile tilapia of 26.6 ± 0.12 g (mean ± SE) were divided into eight groups (30 fish/group) with three replicates. G1 was fed on a basal diet only (D1), while G2 was fed on AFB1 (200 ppb) contaminated diet (D2). G3 and G4 were fed on FEO supplemented diets (1 ml/kg diet) with or without AFB1 (200 ppb) (D3 and D4), respectively. G5 and G6 were fed on S. cerevisiae supplemented diets (1 g/kg diet) with or without AFB1 (200 ppb) (D5 and D6), respectively. G7 and G8 were fed on supplemented diets with mixture from FEO (1 ml/kg diet) and S. cerevisiae (1 g/kg diet) with or without AFB1 (200 ppb) (D7 and D8), respectively. The phagocytic assay, protein profile, serum alanine aminotranferase (ALT) and creatinine were measured at the end of feeding period (30 days). The oxidative stress biomarker as catalase activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) and AFB1 residues in liver and musculature were also measured. At the end of feeding period, the phagocytic activity, total blood proteins and catalase activity showed lower significant values in AFB1 exposed fish. Also, AFB1 induced significant rising in levels of ALT, creatinine and MDA with higher residual levels recorded. Meanwhile, the aflatoxicated groups treated with FEO or S. cerevisiae or their mixture revealed significant improvement of mostly all the measured parameters. FEO can successfully relieve AFB1 noxious effects compared with S. cerevisiae in Nile tilapia.