Anti-diabetic drug found useful in tilapia culture — DOST
A common and affordable anti-diabetic drug is found to be useful in tilapia culture, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has disclosed.
DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña said based on the project funded by the DOST-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD), adding benfotiamine in tilapia diet enables "the fish to accelerate its growth resulting from an increased utilization of carbohydrates at 40 percent and above.”
He explained that aquatic organisms are not able to utilize dietary carbohydrates very well and is thus, considered diabetic and this condition comes in degrees depending on food habit with carnivorous fish on top of the list of diabetics.
"Nile tilapia, although considered omnivorous and moderately able to cope with high dietary carbohydrates, is found to benefit from benfotiamine, a human food supplement at very low dosage of 0.02 percent,” he said in his report.
He said the chemical structure of benfotiamine is very similar to that of Vitamin B1 thiamine, however, benfotiamine have higher bioavailability and better absorption by the body than thiamine.
Dietary carbohydrates are the cheapest components in aquafeeds but its incorporation has a ceiling beyond which it would have a negative effect on growth indexes, he noted.
"It has been documented that blood glucose of the Nile tilapia supplemented with benfotiamine is able to return to its initial stage after five hours of consumption compared with those fed commercial diet and a high carbohydrate diet alone. Tilapia fed with benfotiamine-supplemented diet, shows that their genes involved in carbohydrate metabolic pathways were upregulated,” de la Peña said.
"Profitability of the diets were also studied in a pilot feeding trial in cages in fishponds. Fish fed with benfotiamine exhibited significantly higher gross income, profit and profit margin than either the commercial or high-carbohydrate diet,” he added.
The DOST chief said it was Dr. Augusto E. Serrano, Jr., professor and director of the University of the Philippines (UP) Visayas-National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Miagao, Iloilo who reported such findings in an “online project monitoring and evaluation” held at DOST-PCAARRD, Los Baños, Laguna on April 6.