Effect of a commercial probiotic (Supersets® and Varna®) on growth performance, hematological indices, and immunological parameters in sturgeon hybrid bester (Huso huso ♂× Acipenser ruthenus ♀) fingerling

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of a commercial probiotic containing Bacillus subtilis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. delbrueckii, L. rhamnosus, and L. plantarum on growth performance, hematological and immunological parameters of bester fingerlings. Two-hundred and forty fingerlings (10±0.9 g) were randomly distributed into 12 fiberglass tanks. The experimental diets were formulated using 0 (control), 100 (T100), 200 (T200), and 300 (T300) mg/kg of the probiotic. The fish were fed at 3% of body weight for 8 weeks. The result revealed that dietary probiotics increased final weight, condition factor, daily growth rate, specific growth rate, and body weight increase (p>0.05). Also, we observed a significant increase in feed efficiency ratio and protein efficiency ratio for fish fed with T300 compared to T200 (p<0.05). Hematological parameters were not influenced by dietary probiotic levels (p>0.05). There were no significant differences in total immunoglobulin (p>0.05), while alternative complement activity was significantly enhanced by the inclusion of probiotics in diets (p<0.05). The present study showed that feed efficiency, protein efficiency, and immunological parameters of bester fingerling have been improved by adding the commercial probiotic at 200 mg/kg.