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Turkish Journal of Zoology

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of different levels of Codium fragile macroalgae (CF) dietary supplementation combined with a fixed concentration of 0.05% fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill. var. dulce Mill.) essential oil (FO) on the growth performance, enzyme activity, and hepatopancreas histological changes of juvenile narrow-clawed crayfish Pontastacus leptodactylus (initial average weight = 0.25 ± 0.04 g). A 90-day feeding trial was conducted using four experimental groups: CF + FO (control), 1% CF + FO, 2% CF + FO, and 4% CF + FO. The essential oil yield obtained from the fennel seeds was 2.4%. Anethole was the most abundant component of FO (79.14%), followed by estragole (9.21%), limonene (3.49%), and p-anisaldehyde (2.75%). Fifteen crayfish per tank were stocked in 30 L plastic tanks, with three replicates for each treatment. The results showed that juvenile crayfish in the 1% CF + FO group showed the best growth performance (2.26 ± 1.30 g), weight gain (2.03 ± 1.24 g), protease activity (567.80 ± 13.71 U/mg protein), and the lowest feed conversion ratio (1.32 ± 0.30) (p < 0.05). The highest protein (13.40%) and lipid (2.0%) contents were also observed in the 1% CF + FO group. Dietary supplementation with 1% CF + FO improved the histomorphology of the hepatopancreas. In contrast, supplementation with 4% CF + FO caused histomorphological alterations, including hepatocyte vacuolation, tubule enlargement, and cellular fractionation. In conclusion, supplementation of the diet with 1% CF and 0.05% FO significantly enhances growth performance, stimulates digestive enzyme activity, and improves the hepatopancreas histological structure in juvenile P. leptodactylus.

Author ORCID Identifier

YAVUZ MAZLUM: 0000-0002-9547-0966

METİN YAZICI: 0000-0002-7011-886X

ŞEHRİBAN ÇEK: 0000-0003-1676-5035

MEHMET NAZ: 0000-0002-5129-8498

MUSA TÜRKMEN: 0000-0001-9914-9523

OĞUZ UZUNMEHMETOĞLU: 0000-0002-8488-9921

KEMAL DEDE: 0000-0001-6229-9480

DOI

10.55730/1300-0179.3227

Keywords

Macroalgae, Pontastacus leptodactylus, growth performance, protease activities, hepatopancreas histology

First Page

220

Last Page

232

Publisher

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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