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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Auburn, Alabama » Aquatic Animal Health Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #347246
Research Project: Pathogen Characterization, Host Immune Response and Development of Strategies to Reduce Losses to Disease in Aquaculture

Location: Aquatic Animal Health Research

Title: Antiparasitic efficacy of commercial curcumin against Ichthyophthirius multifiliis in grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus)

Author
item LIU, YAN-MENG - Jinan University
item ZHANG, QI-ZHONG - Jinan University
item Xu, Dehai
item FU, YAO-WU - Jinan University
item LIN, DE-JIE - Jinan University
item ZHOU, SHENG-YU - Jinan University

Submitted to: Aquaculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/31/2017
Publication Date: 11/2/2017
Citation: Liu, Y., Zhang, Q., Xu, D., Fu, Y., Lin, D., Zhou, S. 2017. Antiparasitic efficacy of commercial curcumin against Ichthyophthirius multifiliis in grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus). Aquaculture. 480:65-70.

Interpretive Summary: The protozoa parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Ich) leads to high fish mortality and causes heavy economic loss in aquaculture. Therapeutants that can be used in fish to treat the parasite are limited so there is an urgent need to find new parasiticides to treat Ich infections. The goals of this study were to investigate in vitro and in vivo antiparasitic efficacy of a commercial curcumin against Ich in fish. The results demonstrated that the commercial curcumin, a commercially available product in food industry, showed significant anti-Ich efficacy in vitro and in vivo. The compound could effectively eradicate all free-living theronts (an infective stage of the parasite), and significantly decrease the survival of other life stages of the parasite. Moreover, commercial curcumin is safe for use in fish. The study demonstrated that commercial curcumin can be used as a natural anti-parasite agent. The study results are important to aquaculture and will help to develop effective parasiticides against I. multifiliis.

Technical Abstract: Ichthyophthiriasis, caused by Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, is a prevalent parasitic disease in freshwater fish. It leads to a significant economic loss in fish farming industry. Following the ban of malachite green in usage of treating food fish, new antiparasitic agents for the treatment of ichthyophthiriasis is being studied. The aims of the present study were to investigate in vitro and in vivo antiparasitic efficacy of a commercial curcumin against I. multifiliis and evaluate its acute toxicity in grass carp. In vitro tests, curcumin killed all theronts at 1 mg/L for 38.7 min, caused 100.0% mortality of nonencysted tomonts at 8 mg/L for 47.3 min, and terminated the reproduction of encysted tomonts at 4 mg/L for 16 h, respectively. In vivo trials, curcumin at 4 mg/L for 10 days exposure eradicated all parasitic trophonts in situ, and protected both infected and naive fish from I. multifiliis infections. The results of in vitro and in vivo experiments proved curcumin to be effective against the parasite. The 96 h median lethal concentration (LC50) of curcumin to grass carp (58.5 mg/L) was about 146.3 times median effective concentration (EC50) of curcumin to theronts (0.4 mg/L), and 18.9 times EC50 of curcumin to nonencysted tomonts (3.1 mg/L). Therefore, the commercially available curcumin can be used as a potential lead compound for the development of commercial drugs against I. multifiliis.