Antagonism of Aeromonas hydrophila by propolis and its effect on the performance of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus

Propolis, a resinous substance collected by Apis mellifera bees from various plant sources and mixed with secreted beeswax, is a multifunctional material used by bees in the construction, maintenance, and protection of their hives. The collected propolis sample, from High Egypt, was dark-green with olive-odor. The minimal inhibition concentration (MIC) of propolis-ethanolic-extract, against Aeromonas hydrophila, was 80 μg Propolis-ethanolic-extract and crude propolis (1%) were added to artificial basal diet with (30% crude protein) to evaluate their efficacy on the fish growth-performance, immunostimulation and resistance to A. hydrophila. Two hundred and twenty-five Oreochromis niloticus (8 ± 0.45 g/fish) were divided into three equal treatments (T) of triplet replicates. The fish of T1 were fed on basal diet (control). The fish of T2 were given the basal diet, containing propolis-ethanolic-extract. The fish of T3 were given the basal diet containing crude propolis for 28 day. The fish were intraperitoneally challenged by A. hydrophila (0.2 × 107 cells ml−1) at the end of the feeding period and kept for 15 more days. st growth rate and feed conversion ratio were obtained with T2. The increase in the average daily gain, specific growth rate and feed efficiency ratio were highly significances in T2 followed by T3 when compared with the control group. The HCT-level and monocyte-counts were increased (T2). No significant change, in the large lymphocytic-count was found among the three treatments (28–27–28%), while the neutrophil-count was significantly decreased (7%) with T2 and increased (13.11%) with the control. A significant increase in serum lysozyme and serum bactericidal activities was found with T2. The RLP against A. hydrophila was high with T2 and T3. opolis-ethanolic-extract enhanced the growth, immunity and resistance of O. niloticus against A. hydrophila more than the crude propolis.