Corn husk meal as a sustainable dietary additive in biofloc-cultured koi carp (Cyprinus carpio var. koi): Integrative effects on growth performance, immune response, histology, gene expression, and ammonia-stress resilience.

Authors

Luu Tang Phuc Khang, Suwanna Wisetkaew, Sk Injamamul Islam, Jakree Jitjumnong, Papungkorn Sangsawad, Nguyen Dinh-Hung, Patima Permpoonpattana, Hien Van Doan, Nguyen Vu Linh

Published in

Veterinary research communications. Volume 50. Issue 6. Sep 17, 2026. Epub Sep 17, 2026.

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of dietary corn husk meal (CHM) on growth, digestive enzyme activity, intestinal morphology, immune- and antioxidant-related gene expression, and ammonia-stress tolerance in biofloc-cultured koi carp. A total of 300 fish (initial weight, 32.20 ± 0.03 g) were fed diets containing 0, 5, 10, 20, or 30 g/kg CHM for eight weeks. Survival remained high across treatments (> 95%), while fish fed CHM-10 showed significantly improved growth and a lower feed conversion ratio than the control (p < 0.05). Polynomial regression estimated a modeled optimum CHM inclusion level of approximately 14.4-14.9 g/kg, which was not directly tested in the feeding trial. Serum total protein was unaffected, whereas digestive enzyme activities increased at moderate CHM levels, peaked at 10 g/kg and declined at higher inclusion levels. Fish fed 10 g/kg CHM also exhibited improved intestinal morphometry, whereas higher inclusion levels produced less favorable villus characteristics. CHM supplementation at 10 g/kg significantly upregulated tlr4, tnf-α, il-8, tgf-β, il-10, gpx, sod, gst, and lyz, while nf-κB and cat were not significantly affected. During ammonia exposure, the CHM-10 and CHM-20 groups showed significantly higher survival than the control. Overall, CHM-10 was the best-performing experimentally tested inclusion level, improving growth, digestive function, intestinal morphology, selected immune- and antioxidant-related gene expression, and ammonia-stress resilience in koi carp, while the regression analysis suggested a higher modeled optimum of approximately 14.4-14.9 g/kg. These findings support the sustainable use of agricultural by-products as dietary ingredients for aquaculture.

PMID:
42752773
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Oct 2026.

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