Impact of chitosan and chitosan nanoparticles on reducing heavy metals in the Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus

Abstract

The current study was conducted to assess the ability of chitosan and chitosan nanoparticles to alleviate the effect of heavy metals in the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). The experimental design was completely randomized with a 2 x 3 factorial design; two protein sources (fish and gluten meals) and three forms of chitosan “CS” (zero-chitosan, CS, and CS nanoparticles “CSNP”). A total number of 270 Nile tilapia fingerlings were randomly distributed among 18 tanks (water capacity = 55 L). The overall duration of the experiment was 82 days. Results revealed that fish fed on a fish meal-based diet recorded the highest retained heavy metals followed by those fed gluten meals. Moreover, supplementation of diets with CS and CSNP lowered the concentration of the retained heavy metals in the fish's whole body, especially CSNP. Consequently, it is recommended to use CS and CSNP, especially CSNP as feed additives for fish cultured in agricultural and sewage wastewaters, loaded with high concentrations of heavy metals to ameliorate the fish quality