Effects of Broad Bean Diet on the Growth Performance, Muscle Characteristics, Antioxidant Capacity, and Intestinal Health of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Simple SummaryTwo types of diets with broad bean added (additive amounts of 40% and 50%, respectively), and the other two diets further added with the crisping functional package, were tested for the crisping effect on Nile tilapia. They all reached the crisping effect but had no adverse effect on the growth performance, and the supplement of the crisping functional package can further improve the crisping effect (especially the G5 diet). In addition, the crisping functional package also helped to improve the intestinal tissue and microbiota structure.AbstractFour crisping diets were designed to conduct a feeding experiment to investigate the use of broad bean in the formulated feed of Nile tilapia and optimize its use. The growth performance, muscle characteristics, antioxidant capacity, and intestinal health of Nile tilapia with an initial body weight of 617.32 ± 1.64 g were evaluated after being fed with different diets for 90 days. The results showed no adverse effect on the growth performance of Nile tilapia fed with broad bean diets. Contrastingly, some improvements were found in WGR and SGR, but a lower FCR was obtained. The supplementation of broad beans weakened the antioxidant capacity of fish but did not influence liver health and the immune system. Increasing the amount of broad bean addition can increase muscle quality values, and an embrittling functional package being added to the diet can also improve muscle hardness, adhesiveness, and chewiness of Nile tilapia muscle. In addition, the crisping functional package can be applied to tilapia crisping formulated feed, which helps to improve the integrity of the intestinal tissue structure and optimize the intestinal microbiota of Nile tilapia. The final achievement of this study is to provide a theoretical reference for optimizing the breeding technology of crispy Nile tilapia and developing a specialized crisping diet for the species.Keywords:broad bean;crisp;Nile tilapia;intestinal health;muscle