Authors : Dan Yi, Lingfang Gu, Binying Ding, Ming Li, Yongqing Hou, Lei Wang and Joshua Gong
Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary silymarin supplementation on growth performance and oxidative status in Carassius auratus gibelio. About 270 fishes (C. auratus gibelio) were randomly assigned to the following groups: the control group was fed a basal diet; flavomycin group and silymarin group were fed a basal diet supplemented with 4 mg kg-1 flavomycin and 100 mg kg-1 silymarin, respectively. After 8 weeks feeding, body weight and feed intake were recorded. Blood, liver and muscle sample were also collected for determining the biochemical parameters, oxidative status, protein, RNA and DNA levels. No significant differences in growth performance and body composition of fishes were observed among three groups. However, dietary supplementation with silymarin increased the levels of blood total protein and globulin as compared to flavomycin group. Fishes receiving silymarin exhibited a lower level of malondialdehyde in serum and liver compared to control and flavomycin groups whereas levels of liver and serum superoxide dismutase were not affected. In addition, dietary silymarin increased the ratio of protein to RNA of liver whereas did not affect the ratio of RNA to DNA in muscle and liver. Collectively, these data suggested that dietary supplementation of 100 mg kg-1 silymarin increased the protein synthesis and potentially improved the antioxidative capacity in C. auratus gibelio.
Dan Yi, Lingfang Gu, Binying Ding, Ming Li, Yongqing Hou, Lei Wang and Joshua Gong, 2012. Effects of Dietary Silymarin Supplementation on Growth Performance and Oxidative Status in Carassius auratus gibelio. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 11: 3399-3404.