Improving Yellow Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) Utilization with Sodium Butyrate in Nile Tilapia Diets: Effects on Growth Performance, Intestinal Histology, Antioxidative Response, and Blood Biomarkers

Table 3

Intestinal morphometry of Nile tilapia fed test diets for 60 days.

	Villus height (μm)	Villus width (μm)	Crypt depth (μm)	Muscularis thickness (μm)	Goblet cell count
Fish meal	122.21^d	85.91^b	42.31^c	3.33^d	22.47^b
Fish meal + SB	504.73^a	103.6^a	71.41^a	13.05^b	23.45^a
T. molitor	216.47^c	84.18^b	57.87^b	7.33^c	22.53^b
T. molitor + SB	442.33^b	108.58^a	75.67^a	28.67^a	23.57^a
Pooled SE	12.36	4.59	3.11	0.67	1.32
Main effect
Protein source
Fish meal	313.47	94.76	56.86	8.17	22.96
T. molitor		96.38			23.05
Sodium butyrate (SB)
─SB	169.34	85.05	50.09	5.33	22.50
+SB	473.53^#	106.09^#	73.54^#	20.84^#	23.51^#
Two-way ANOVA (P-value)
Protein source	0.003	0.211	0.005	0.024	0.032
SB	0.001	0.002	0.031	0.035	0.011
Protein source × SB	0.021	0.043	0.003	0.002	0.003

Values are an average of three replicates. Different letters indicate significant differences () between dietary protein sources (fish meal or T. molitor meal) and sodium butyrate by Tukey’s test when significant interactions are seen at (). However, in case of nonsignificant interactions at () between the main effects, the symbols of () and (^#) are used to refer to the significances between dietary protein sources (fish meal or T. molitor meal) or sodium butyrate, respectively, by t-test at ().