Dietary supplement of fructooligosaccharides and Bacillus subtilis enhances the growth rate and disease resistance of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka)

The effects of two dietary supplements, entrapped fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and microencapsulated Bacillus subtilis, on the growth and disease resistance of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus were investigated. Sea cucumbers (a total of 810 animals, with initial weight of 3.72 ± 0.16 g each) were fed with basal diet only or basal diet supplemented with three different doses of B. subtilis (0.2, 0.4 and 0.8%), three different doses of FOS (0.4, 0.8 and 1.6%), 0.2% B. subtilis plus 0.4% or 0.8% FOS. Growth and lysozyme activity were measured after 50 days feeding. The results showed that dietary 0.2% and 0.4% B. subtilis alone or 0.2% B. subtilis plus 0.8% FOS significantly increased the specific growth rate (SGR) of sea cucumbers compared with control (P   0.05). Under these experimental conditions, dietary B. subtilis and FOS had no synergistic effect on enhancing SGR and disease resistance of sea cucumber.