Potential Benefits of Ripe Cultivated Banana (Musa sapientum Linn.) in Practical Diet on Growth Performance, Feed Utilization and Disease Resistance of Hybrid Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus x O. mossambicus)

The potential benefits of ripe cultivated banana CV. Kluai Namwa (Musa sapientum Linn.) as a natural feed supplementation in practical diet on growth performance, feed utilization, innate immunity and disease resistance against Streptococcus agalactiae infection in hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus x O. mossambicus) were evaluated. Fish were fed with the test diet containing different levels of ripe cultivated banana (RCB) supplements (10, 30 and 50 g/kg diet) compared with the negative control and positive control diet for 60 days. Results showed that growth parameters, feed efficiency and lysozyme activity values in the positive control group (vitamins and minerals premix added) were significantly higher than the negative control group (without any premix supplements) but differences among the RCB supplementary diet group and the positive control group were not statistically significant. After challenged with Streptococcus agalactiae, the cumulative mortality of fish in the positive control group was lowest (0%), the percent survivals were 62.22%, 66.67%, 83.33% and 88.89% in the negative control, 10RCB, 30RCB, and 50RCB treatments, respectively. These results showed that the RCB supplementary diets had unaffected on growth performances and could be potential as an immunostimulant to improve fish health for red tilapia aquaculture.