An investigation on the use of Prosopis juliflora pods as a carbohydrate source supplemented with probiotics in the diet of Labeo rohita fingerlings

Abstract

The present study investigated the use of fermented Prosopis juliflora pods (PJP) as a carbohydrate source, alternative to rice bran (RB), and a PJP based diet formulation supplemented with probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA), Lactobacillus bulgaricus 009 (LB) and Streptococcus thermophilus (ST) on the growth of Labeo rohita (rohu) fingerlings. The diets were isonitrogenous (39%) and isoenergetic (15.9 KJ/g gross energy); and were prepared using RB (as reference diet RD), crude pods (PJPC), fermented pods (PJPF) and with probiotics LA (PJPLA), LB (PJPLB) and ST (PJPST). The results showed that fermentation of PJP with LA significantly increased protein, lipid, Ca, Fe, Mg, K and reducing sugar; and completely eliminated (P<0.05) phytic acid. The diets PJPF and PJPLA produced higher (P<0.05) percent weight gain, SGR, FCR and PER as compared to PJPC, PJPLB and PJPST diets; and achieved growth performance comparable to RD. An improvement (P<0.05) in the carcass protein has been detected in groups PJPF and PJPLA in comparison to RD, PJPC, PJPLB and PJPST. The LA was found to be effective in controlling coliform count in gut as compared to LB and ST; and also in controlling total viable count, total coliform count and fecal streptococci count in fecal matter. The results indicate that PJPF and PJPLA deserve further investigations as alternative feed for rohu.