Effects of Dietary Curcumin Nanoparticles (C-NPS) on Growth Performance, Digestive Enzymes Activities, Antioxidant Status and Immunity Responses for Enhancing the Intestinal Mucosa of White-Leg Shrimp ( <i>Litopenaeus vannamei</i> ) Challenged by <i>

Abstract Currently, the aquaculture industry is challenged with disease outbreaks and pathogen infections originating from intensive aquaculture production. Using phytogenic natural compounds as dietary curcumin nanoparticles that have been extensively applied in aquafeeds to enhance the performance, antioxidant activity, and innate immunity of several fish species, the present study investigates the response of white-leg shrimps ( Litopenaeus vannamei ) challenged with Fusarium solani fed on dietary curcumin nanoparticles (C-NPs) on growth, digestive enzymes activity, antioxidant enzymes activity, and their humoral immune responses. White-leg shrimps, L. vannamei (3.56±0.02 g) were raised in triplicate groups for 56 days on a diet containing 39% protein and 11% lipid and 5 concentrations of C-NPs (0 as the control, 15, 30, 45, and 60 mg/kg). The pathogen, F. solani confronted the shrimps after the feeding trial. The findings showed that the performance parameters FBW, WG, SGR and FCR increased significantly (P≤0.05) by 19.5%, 34.82%, 18.47%, 18.33% and 3.07% with increasing the concentrations of dietary C-NPs. The amount of 45 mg/kg C-NPs in shrimp feed served as an optimum dosage. The control diets had the highest cumulative mortality of white-leg prawns when they were exposed to the pathogen (70.00%), followed by T1 (55.00%) and T2 (45.00%), while T3 and T4 recorded the lowest cumulative mortality rates (35.00%). The intestinal layers (mucosa) of infected shrimps treated by different concentration of C-NPs were significantly improved by 15%. Therefore, the current study recommended using dietary C-NPs to enhance the white-leg shrimp’s functionality, digestive and antioxidant enzymes activities and immune system response.