Alteration of growth, intestinal Lactobacillus, selected immune and digestive enzyme activities in juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus, fed dietary multiple probiotics

To assess the influences on growth performance, intestinal Lactobacillus, immune and digestive enzyme activities of juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus by administrating multiple probiotics. Multiple probiotics (0, 6 × 107 and 9 × 107 CFU g−1) and normal basal feed were mixed thoroughly at different doses of diet (T0, T1, and T2, respectively) and were administered orally to sea cucumbers for 90 days. After the feeding trial, 20 sea cucumbers were randomly sampled from each pond. The results showed that administration of multiple probiotics significantly affected on the growth performance, non-specific immune enzymes, and microbial ecology of the gut of sea cucumbers (P < 0.05). However, the lysozyme activities, the counts of total, and lactic bacteria of sea cucumbers were not significantly altered at dose of 6 × 107 CFU g−1 feed compared with control group (T0). Protease activities of sea cucumbers were significantly increased when fed with T1 diet compared with T0 (P < 0.05). Under the conditions of mass-scale culture, the present results indicate that the multiple probiotics can benefit growth performance, innate immunity, microbial ecology of the gut, several digestive enzyme activities of sea cucumber. The present study confirmed the potential effects of the multiple probiotics as dietary probiotics in juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus.