H-Michael Habte-Tsion

University of Maine | UM · Cooperative Extension - Aquaculture Research Institute

A 12-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of fish meal (FM) substitution by clam meal (CM, at 10%, 20% and 30% of the diet) on the growth, feed utilization, hepatic antioxidant enzymes, plasma parameters, fatty acid and amino acid composition, and gut microbiome of juvenile Florida pompano, Trachinotus carolinus. The results ind...

The benefits associated with aquaculture, such as the provision of accessible food, income generation, and community empowerment could have led to the radical search for effective strategies to mitigate negative impacts, instead of discouraging the practice. One of the emerging technologies is nanotechnology, which is defined as the “science and en...

Food safety is a scientific discipline to ensure consumers' safety and prevent food-related harms, hazards, or risks along the entire food supply chain. Although fish and seafood products are the best means for securing food and nutrition in a population, they are also highly perishable, being vulnerable to pathogenic bacteria and fungi. This revie...

This study evaluated the effects of dietary Allium sativum and Aloe vera polysaccharides mixtures on growth performance, feed utilization, hematological parameters, resistance against low water pH, and whole-body composition of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) juveniles. Fish were divided into 5 triplicate groups before being fed diets suppleme...

Aiming to optimize plant-based diets for largemouth bass (LMB; Micropterus salmoides), a 10-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate effects of supplemental glycine, prebiotic, and nucleotides in soybean meal (SBM)-based diets formulated to contain 50% SBM, 40% crude protein, and 12% lipid. Four test diets were formulated by supplementing glyci...

A 9-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate effects of supplemental phosphorus (P) in soybean meal (SBM)-based diets for largemouth bass (LMB). Six isonitrogenous (~400 g/kg crude protein) and isolipidic (~130 g/kg crude lipid) diets containing non-phytic acid phosphorus (nPA-P) ranging from 4.1 to 10.5 g/kg were fed twice daily to triplicate...

A ten-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides, LMB) responses to supplemental eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)- and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-rich oils at different inclusion levels and ratios. For this purpose, eight experimental diets were formulated to contain 42% crude protein and12% lipid. Two diets were...

A 12-week factorial experiment was conducted to investigate the interactive effects of dietary algal meal (Schizochytrium sp., AM) and micro-minerals (MM, either organic [OM] or inorganic [IM]) on the immune and antioxidant status, and the expression of hepatic genes involved in the regulation of antioxidants, inflammatory cytokines, lipid metaboli...

Aquaculture is one of the fast-growing food production sectors worldwide and this sector supplies more than half of the total fish and shellfish used for human consumption. However, super-intensive farming operations has been economic losses, primarily due to feed cost that account 40 - 60% of the total operation costs and disease outbreak. As an a...

This work investigated the potential effects of dietary garlic (Allium sativum) crude polysaccharide (GPE) (0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0%/kg diet) on growth, haematological parameters, whole body composition, and resistance against low pH in African catfish, Clarias gariepinus juveniles. At the end of 60 days, fish fed GPE supplemented diets had signi...

Micro-algae, Schizochytrium sp., is rich source of docosahexaenoic acid, DHA (66%-lipid with 27%-DHA). Eight nutritionally balanced-diets were formulated: diet 1 (control) consisted of only fish oil (FO); diets 2 and 3 had increasing amounts of algae-meal and soybean oil (SBO) at the expense of FO; diet 4 consisted of a combination of algae meal (3...

This study evaluated the effects of dietary Aloe vera polysaccharides on growth performance, feed utilization, hemato-biochemical parameters, and resistance against low water pH in African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings. Fish were divided into five triplicate groups before being fed feeds supplemented with 0% (control), 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0%,...

Malnutrition in children is a current global burden. A common snack for children is biscuits prepared from cereals. However, these types of biscuits have low protein content. Therefore, producing healthier biscuits enriched with essential amino acids (EAAs) and other micronutrients is of great interest to researchers and manufacturers. In this stud...

A 12-week experiment was conducted to evaluate replacing fish oil (FO) in Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) diets with algal meal (Schizochytrium sp. [AM]) and vegetable oils (VO: linseed oil [L] and soybean oil [S]). For this purpose, 15 aquaria (110-L each) were arranged in an indoor rack recirculating saltwater system (salinity, 27-28...

Many studies have shown that nonstarch polysaccharide (NSP)-enzymes increase digestive enzyme activities, enhance digestion and absorption capacities, improve intestinal flora, and promote growth of animals. The increased use of plant ingredients and their coproducts, combined with application of NSP-enzymes technology, modern feed processing, and...

The application of nonstarch polysaccharide enzymes (NSP-enzymes) as feed additives to improve nutrient digestibility of plant-based feedstuffs has been researched extensively in higher animals and to some extent in aquaculture species. NSP-enzymes are now broadly used throughout the world as a way to reduce the antinutritional effects of NSP and p...

The use of food enzymes dates back to much longer before the 19th century when their catalytic abilities were scientifically recognized. Nowadays, more than 80% of the global market of enzymes accounts for industrial applications in which food and feed enzymes represent the major share. These include enzymes used in baking, brewery, beverages, dair...

Food and feed additives may be natural, nature identical, or artificial. The main groups of additives are enzymes, antioxidants, colors, flavor enhancers, sweeteners, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and preservatives. Worldwide, all additives are generally thoroughly assessed for safety and efficacy before they are allowed to be used. Most additives are...

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML version of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

A feeding trial was conducted to assess the effects of replacing fishmeal (FM) with canola meal (CM) on the growth performance, feed utilization and related gene expression of juvenile blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala). Fishes were fed with five isonitrogenous (330 g/kg crude protein) and isoenergetic (15 MJ/kg) diets for 16 weeks, which...

A 12-week growth trial was conducted to assess an improved soybean meal (ISBM) in the diet of Pacific white shrimp (PWS). Four isonitrogenous and isolipidic experimental diets were formulated: the control diet (ISBM-0) contained 30% fishmeal (FM) and three test diets (ISBM-33, ISBM-66 and ISBM-100) were formulated by gradually replacing FM on an is...

An eight-week feeding trial was conducted to determine the dietary histidine requirement of juvenile blunt snout bream. The results showed that final body weight, weight gain rate and specific growth rate significantly increased with increasing dietary histidine levels up to 9.9 g/kg (p < .05) and decreased gradually thereafter, while feed conversi...

This study evaluated the mechanisms governing insulin resistance, glucose metabolism and lipogenesis in juvenile fish fed with graded levels of dietary arginine. The results showed that, compared with the control group (0.87%), 2.31% dietary arginine level resulted in the upregulation of the relative gene expression of IRS-1, PI3K and Akt in the in...

The effects of dietary folic acid on biochemical parameters and gene expression of three heat shock proteins (HSPs) of blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) fingerling under acute high temperature stress. Six dietary folic acid groups (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0, and 10.0) mg/kg diets were designed and assigned into 18 tanks in three replicates...

Investigated were the effects of stocking density on juvenile growth performance, serum biochemistry, fatty acid composition, and mRNA levels of enzymes involved in lipid metabolism in genetically improved farmed tilapia (GIFT), Oreochromis niloticus. Juvenile fish (n = 900) were distributed into 15 tanks at five initial stocking densities (75, 150...

A 16-week feeding trial was conducted to assess the effects of replacing fish meal (FM) with cottonseed meal (CM) on the growth performance, feed utilization, plasma biochemical composition and target of rapamycin (TOR) pathway gene expression of juvenile blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala). Five isonitrogenous (36% crude protein) and isoe...

Eritrea is a small developing nation in the Horn of Africa with total area 124,320 Km2 and has a population of about 6 million. Eritrea is situated in a strategically important part of the Red Sea. Eritrea has an extensive 2,234km coastline, 1,151km of it coming from its mainland and 1,083km coming from its 356 islands on the Red Sea, which is the...

A 9-week feeding trial was conducted to estimate the dietary isoleucine requirement of juvenile blunt snout bream. Six isonitrogenous and isoenergetic experimental diets were formulated to contain graded isoleucine levels ranging from 5.3 to 20.1 g kg-1 dry diet. At the end of the experiment, weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed effic...

The open sun rack and solar tent drier were evaluated for their drying effectiveness to evaluate the quality of Stelophorus heterolobus. The highest mean temperature in the solar tent drier was found to be 45oC, with relative humidity 42%, while in the open sun rack drying was 35oC, with relative humidity 47% at an air speed of 1.8 meter per second...

This study hypothesized that an optimum dietary protein level might play an important role in improving stress tolerance, enhancing an immune function, and ultimately minimizing temperature stress. For this purpose, the present study conducted a 10-week feeding trial followed by a 7-day stress experiment to evaluate the effects of dietary protein l...

The contribution of aquaculture to world food production has increased significantly over the last few decades, and this sector now supplies nearly half of the total fish and shellfish used for human consumption. Considering its importance in the world food sector, it is widely recognized that the industry should become sustainable from every angle...

Blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) is a major cultured freshwater fish with great consumer demand and high production in China (e.g. about 0.70 million tons in 2012). However, few nutritional studies have been reported about this species. Indeed, this study conducted a nine week feeding trial to investigate the effects of threonine (Thr)...

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of stocking density on serum cortisol (COR) levels and expression of immune genes in the head kidney of juvenile GIFT tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) after Streptococcus iniae (S. iniae) infection. Juveniles (2700) were distributed into 30 tanks at five stocking densities (150, 300, 450, 60...

The present study conducted a 9-week feeding trial to investigate the effects of threonine (Thr) on the digestion capacity and hepatopancreas gene expression of juvenile blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala). For this purpose, three tanks (300 liters per tank) were randomly arranged and assigned to each experimental diet. Juvenile fish were...

The contribution of aquaculture to world food production has increased significantly over the last few decades and this sector now supplies nearly half of the total fish and shellfish used for human consumption. Advances in culture techniques and the introduction of new species, have contributed to the rapid growth of the aquaculture industry. The...

This study performed a 10-week experiment to assess the effects of normal, acute and chronic temperatures on the growth, stress, immune and antioxidant status and hepatopancreatic gene expressions of antioxidant enzymes and heat-shock proteins (HSPs) of blunt snout bream fry, and cumulative mortality under Aeromonas hydrophila infection. For this p...

The contribution of aquaculture to world food production has increased significantly over the last few decades and this sector now supplies nearly half of the total fish and shellfish used for human consumption. Advances in culture techniques and the introduction of new species have contributed to the rapid growth of the aquaculture industry. Consi...

A nine-week feeding trial was conducted to test the hypothesis that an adequate methionine diet might improve growth, feed utilization, body composition and physiology, and biochemical parameters in pre-adult blunt snout bream Megalobramaamblycephala, whereas a methionine deficiency might have adverse effects on these parameters. Six isonitrogenous...

A 9-week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of graded dietary threonine (Thr) levels (0.58-2.58%) on the hematological parameters, immune response, antioxidant status and hepatopancreatic gene expression of antioxidant enzymes and antioxidant-immune-cytokine-related signaling molecules in juvenile blunt snout bream. For this pur...

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to estimate the dietary arginine requirement and investigate the effects of dietary arginine levels on the growth performance, plasma essential amino acids contents and relative gene expressions of target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling pathway in juvenile blunt snout bream. Fish (initial weight 20.0 ± 0.03g) were...

The contribution of aquaculture to world food production has increased significantly over the last few decades and this sector now supplies nearly half of the total fish and shellfish used for human consumption. However, the downside of intensification of the farming operations has been economic losses, primarily due to infectious diseases. Efforts...

A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the impacts of deficient and excess dietary threonine levels on weight gain, plasma enzymes activities, immune responses and expressions of immune-related genes in the intestine of juvenile blunt snout bream. Triplicate groups of fish (initial weight 3.01 ± 0.01 g, 30 fish per tank) were fed with deficie...

A 9 weeks feeding trial was conducted to investigate the impacts of deficient and excess dietary threonine (Thr) levels on weight gain, plasma enzymes activities, immune responses and expressions of immune-related genes in the intestine of juvenile blunt snout bream.

An 8-week feeding trial was carried out to test the hypothesis that adequate dietary valine might improve growth, feed utilization and protein content in blunt snout bream, whereas a valine deficiency might have adverse effects on these parameters. Six isonitrogenous (34% crude protein) and isoenergetic (14.2 MJ kg-1 digestible energy) experimental...

A 12-week feeding trail was conducted to assess the effect of rare earth-chitosan chelate (RECC) on growth performance and immune responses of gibel carp, Carassius auratus gibelio. Isonitrogenous and isolipid experimental diets were supplemented with graded levels of rare earth-chitosan chelate (RECC 0, 0.8, 4 and 8 g Kg−1). A total of 720 gibel c...

The present study conducted a 9-week feeding trial to investigate the effects of threonine (Thr) on the digestion capacity and hepatopancreas gene expression of juvenile blunt snout bream ( Megalobrama amblycephala ). For this purpose, three tanks (300 litres/tank) were randomly arranged and assigned to each experimental diet. Juvenile fish were fe...

The present experiment was conducted to determine the dietary vitamin A (VA) requirement of juvenile Wuchang bream by formulating six isonitrogenous and isoenergetic purified experimental diets containing 0, 1934, 3885, 7924, 15,935 and 47,917 IU VA (as retinol acetate) kg−1 diet, respectively. Each experimental diet was fed to triplicate groups of...

A study was conducted to assess the particular glucose metabolic strategies of the blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) faced a short starvation and followed by refeeding with different dietary starch levels. Blunt snout bream (54±1.7 g) were fasted for 20 days, and then fed with three isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets containing 0%, 30%...

A 9-week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary leucine levels on growth, body composition, plasma parameters and relative expression of target of rapamycin (TOR) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-ɑ) mRNA in juvenile blunt snout bream. Six isonitrogenous and isoenergetic experimental diets were formulated to contain gra...

Two 9-week experiments were conducted to estimate the dietary phenylalanine requirement and the tyrosine replacement value for phenylalanine of juvenile blunt snout bream. In experiment I, six isonitrogenous and isoenergetic experimental diets were formulated to contain graded levels of phenylalanine ranging from 0.51% to 2.04% of the diet at a con...

A 3-month feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary carbohydrate source on the growth performance, apparent digestibility coefficients and liver glucose enzyme activity in juvenile blunt snout bream. Six experimental diets were formulated to contain 33% wheat starch, corn starch, dextrin, maltose, glucose or cellulose. At th...

A 3-month feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary carbohydrate source on the growth performance, apparent digestibility coefficients and liver glucose enzyme activity in juvenile blunt snout bream. Six experimental diets were formulated to contain 33% wheat starch, corn starch, dextrin, maltose, glucose or cellulose. At th...

We determined the effect of emodin on the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondria membrane potential (ΔΨm), and apoptosis in the hepatic cells of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus). Cultured cells were treated with differen...

Megalobrama amblycephala is a typical herbivorous freshwater fish native to China. It has been introduced to North America, Africa, Europe and other Asian countries. This species is a good candidate of freshwater fish intensive culture; because of its fast growth rate, use of natural food, high larval survival rate, tender flesh, high disease resis...

A 10 weeks experiment was carried out to assess the effects of acute and chronic high temperature stress on stress response, immune response, and heat shock proteins (HSPs) gene expression in Wuchang bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) fry (mean initial weight, 16.08±0.03g). Fish were fed optimum semi-purified diet (32.16% crude protein, 15.56kJ/g ene...

A 10 weeks experiment was carried out to assess the effects of acute and chronic high temperature stress on stress responses, immune responses, and heat shock proteins (HSPs) gene expression in Wuchang bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) fry.

In this study, we investigated the effects of hyperthermia and recovery on cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), and heat shock protein (HSP60, 70, and 90) mRNA expression in the hepatic cells of the grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idellus....

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of mild hyperthermia on cell viability, release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) formation, total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), and the relative mRNA levels of heat shock protein (HSP60, 70, and 90) in hepatic cells of grass carp (Cteno...

The purpose of this study was to determine the dietary protein requirement and effects of dietary protein level on growth performance, muscle composition, blood composition, and digestive enzyme activity in Wuchang bream fry. Five isoenergetic and isolipidic semi-purified diets were formulated to contain 28%, 30%, 32%, 34%, or 36% (dry matter) diet...

The purpose of this study was to determine the dietary protein requirement and effects of dietary protein level on growth performance, muscle composition, blood composition, and digestive enzyme activity in Wuchang bream fry. Five isoenergetic and isolipidic semi-purified diets were formulated to contain 28%, 30%, 32%, 34%, or 36% (dry matter) diet...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of vitamin E(VE)on serum biochemical indices and antioxidant capacity of juvenile Megalobrama amblycephala under acute high temperature stress and recovery.180 healthy fish(45.00±0.50)g were selected and randomly divided into three groups:a control group was fed with basal diet,and two treatm...

A joint research project was established in 2003 between Mercy Corps Eritrea (an international NGO) and Seawater Forest Initiative (Seawater Farms Eritrea, Seaphire International-US based company). The objective of the project was to develop halophyte plants based ruminants feed for small scale farmers in Eritrea. From 2002-2004, under external-sup...

Eritrea is a small developing nation in the Horn of Africa with total area 124,320 km2 and has a population of about 6 million. Eritrea is situated in a strategically important part of the Red Sea. The country has 2,234 km coastline, the 6th longest coastline in Africa, with 1,151 km along its mainland and 1,083 km around its 356 islands on the Red...