Effects of Dietary Supplementation of Two Types of Propolis on Growth Performance, Feed Utilization, Innate Immunity and Disease Resistance of Olive Flounder Paralichthys olivaceus

We investigated the effects of dietary supplementation of two types (powder or liquid) of propolis on innate immunity and disease resistance of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus against Edwerdsiella tarda. A total of 600 fish averaging 30 g were randomly distributed into 24 tanks in groups of 25. Three tanks were assigned to each of eight experimental diets: 0 (Control), 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 % propolis in powder form and 0.25, 0.5 and 1 % propolis in liquid form (PP0.25, PP0.5, PP0.75, PP1, LP0.25, LP0.5 and LP1, respectively). Fish were fed each experimental diet twice daily for four weeks to apparent satiation. At the end of the feeding trial, lysozyme and myeloperoxidase activities and total immunoglobulin level were significantly higher in fish fed the PP1 and LP0.5 diets compared to those fed the control diet. The PP1 diet was also associated with a significant increase in anti-protease activity compared to the control diet. After challenge with E. tarda, fish fed the LP0.5 diet showed numerically higher survival compared to the other groups. This study indicates that non-specific immune responses of olive flounder can be enhanced by dietary supplementation with powder and liquid forms of propolis, and that the optimal level would be 1% in powder form or 0.5% in liquid form. It seemed that growth performance and feed utilization are not affected by the propolis supplementation in diets for olive flounder.