Dietary Mulberry Leaf Powder Supplementation Promotes Growth of Apostichopus japonicus in Winter via Regulating Redox Capability, Digestion, and Intestinal Microbiota

Abstract

The sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus is of great economic value and is mainly cultivated in China. The application of formulated feeds has been widely used in massive sea cucumber aquaculture in recent years. With the attempt to investigate and evaluate the potential of mulberry leaf powder (MLP) as a dietary supplement for sea cucumber aquaculture (especially in winter), a 45-day feeding trail was carried out in winter in this study. Growth performance, digestive and redox-related enzyme activities, and the microbiota of intestinal contents were determined and compared between a basic diet and diets with different MLP-administration levels. The results showed that (1) MLP supplementation has a positive effect on the growth performance of sea cucumber; (2) increased activities of protease and lipase were observed in sea cucumber fed with MLP diets; (3) increased redox-related enzyme activities were observed in sea cucumber fed with 2% MLP diets; and (4) MLP supplementation has a regulatory effect on the diversity and relative abundance of microbiota in the intestinal contents of sea cucumber. The optimal dose of dietary MLP for growing sea cucumbers in winter was 2% dry weight. All data observed in this study will provide new clues for developing formulated feeds for massive sea cucumber aquaculture.

Bibliographic Information