Disease resistance of pacu Piaractus mesopotamicus (Holmberg, 1887) fed with β-glucan

• Autor(a) principal: Biller-Takahashi,JD
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Takahashi,LS, Marzocchi-Machado,CM, Zanuzzo,FS, Urbinati,EC
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Biology
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1519-69842014000300698
• topic: immunology; complement system; innate immunity; lysozyme; respiratory burst activity of leukocytes

Effects of β-glucan on innate immune responses and survival were studied in pacu experimentally infected with Aeromonas hydrophila. Fish fed diets containing 0, 0.1% and 1% β-glucan were injected with A. hydrophila. β-glucan enhanced fish survival in both treated groups (26.7% and 21.2% of the control, respectively). Leukocyte respiratory burst and alternative complement pathway activities were elevated after bacterial challenge regardless the β-glucan concentration. Lysozyme activity was higher after infection and showed a gradual increase as β-glucan concentration increased. A significant elevation in WBC count was observed either after bacterial challenge or by influence of β-glucan separately. The same response was observed in the number of thrombocytes, lymphocytes, eosinophils, LG-PAS positive cell and monocytes. It can be concluded that feeding pacu with β-glucan can increase protection against A. hydrophila, due to changes in non-specific immune responses.