Mango pulp meal in diets for Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus): Digestibility, Growth performance, Biochemical analysis, Digestive enzyme activity, hematological variables

The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of mango pulp meal (MPM) as an ingredient for extruded diets for Nile tilapia juveniles. In the first trial, the digestibility of energy, dry matter, crude protein, and amino acids was determined, using 80 juveniles (average weight 25.00 ± 0.50 g), fed with a reference diet and a test diet containing the proportion of 70% of the reference diet and 30% of the MPM. Chromium oxide (Cr2O6) was used as an digestibility indicator and feces were collected using the Adapted Guelph System. The second assay assessed the growth performance; biochemical analysis; digestive enzyme activity; hematological variables for 300 juveniles fish (average weight 26.66 ± 0.17 g), fed for 45 days with balanced diets containing 0 (control), 40, 80, 120, and 160 g of MPM per kg-1. The dry matter, crude protein, and crude energy apparent digestibility coefficients of MPM were 39.26, 50.18, and 44.5%, respectively. The growth performance of the animals was negatively impacted by the MPM, however the hematological parameters and plasma concentrations of albumin, total proteins and cholesterol were not altered. However, the increase on hepatic glycogen reserves, glycemia, and alanine aminotransferase plasmatic enzyme activity demonstrated that MPM diet inclusion promoted oxidative metabolism conditions that could cause hepatocellular damage and affect fish health, if fed for long periods or at higher levels of MPM than analyzed in this study.