| Abstract: | A feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate the ef fects of bulk zinc(B-Zn) and zinc nanoparticles(Zn-NPs) on survival, growth, compositions of amino acid and fatty acid, and nonspeci?c immune responses of the freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii post larvae. The B-Zn(size 10 μm)and Zn-NPs(size 50 nm) were supplemented separately with the basal feeds of M. rosenbergii at 60 mg/kg and feed without supplementation of any Zn source was served as a control. M. rosenbergii were fed these feeds for 90 days and the results showed that signi?cant( P <0.05) improvements in survival, growth, feed intake,speci?c growth rate, essential amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids, nonspeci?c immune responses(total haemocytes and dif ferential haemocytes count) of M. rosenbergii fed with B-Zn and Zn-NPs supplemented feeds when compared to control. Among these Zn sources, Zn-NPs supplemented feeds fed prawns showed signi?cantly( P <0.05) better performance than that of B-Zn and control. Hence, present study suggests that the 60 mg/kg Zn-NPs can be supplemented with basal feeds of M. rosenbergii for regulating better survival and growth. |
