Evaluation of commercial live bakers' yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a growth and immunity promoter for Fry Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (L.) challenged in situ with Aeromonas hydrophila

This study was carried out to evaluate the use of commercial live bakers' yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a growth and immunity promoter for Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (L). Fish (0.33 g) were randomly distributed at 25 fish per 140-L aquarium and fed a diet containing 0.0, 0.25, 0.50, 1.0, 2.0, or 5.0 g yeast/kg diet for 12 weeks. After the 12-week experimental period, fish of each treatment were challenged by pathogenic Aeromonas hydrophila, which was given by interperitoneal (IP) injection and kept under observation for 10 days to record clinical signs and the daily mortality rate. The growth-promoting influences of bakers' yeast were observed with fish and the optimum growth, feed utilization, and protein turn-over were obtained with 1.0-5.0 g yeast/kg diet. Also, yeast supplementation increased protein deposition in fish body. Biochemical parameters were improved in fish fed yeast up to 1.0 g/kg diet. Total fish mortality 10-days after IP injection with A. hydrophila and its count after incubation with fish serum decreased with the increase of yeast level in fish diets. However, the lowest fish mortality and bacterial counts were obtained in fish fed 5.0 g yeast/kg. These results indicate that bakers' yeast supplement is promising as an alternative method to antibiotics for disease prevention in tilapia aquaculture, and the optimum level of live bakers' yeast is about 1.0 g per kg diet. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.