LAUSR

The present feeding trial examined the effect of synbiotic use of Bacillus mycoides and organic selenium (OS) as Sel-Plex on marron immunity, growth and survival. The marron were cultured in recirculated tanks and fed test diets consisting of a basal diet; basal diet supplemented with B. mycoides (108 CFU g−1 of feed); basal diet supplemented with OS (Sel-Plex) (0.2 g kg−1 of feed) and basal diet supplemented with synbiotic (B. mycoides at 108 CFU g−1 and OS 0.2 g kg−1 feed) diet, in triplicate. The effect of the prebiotic OS (Sel-Plex) on the growth rate of B. mycoides was also studied in vitro. The results suggested that synbiotic use of B. mycoides and OS significantly improved some immune parameters of marron, particularly the glutathione peroxidase, and to some extent total haemocyte counts. However, the synbiotic feed did not synergistically improve marron growth, in fact the use of B. mycoides-supplemented diet alone demonstrated significantly higher growth in marron compared with the growth of marron fed on other test diets. Supplementation of the basal diet with host origin B. mycoides significantly increased the intestinal bacterial population (3.399 ± 825 CFU g−1 of gut) in marron compared with other diets. Organic selenium as Sel-Plex in Trypticase Soya Broth also confirmed that OS did not increase the amount of growth of B. mycoides and resulted in a lower intestinal bacterial population in the synbiotic diet-fed marron. In conclusion, synbiotic of OS and B. mycoides may improve a particular immune parameters of marron and to a lesser extent their growth.