{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T05:00:16Z","timestamp":1785387616193,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785369600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Physiol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    <jats:italic>Moringa oleifera<\/jats:italic>\n                    leaves are an important phytobiotic agent due to their growth-promoting, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties. Thus, it has become a spicy and disease-control agent in traditional medicine. In this study,\n                    <jats:italic>Moringa oleifera<\/jats:italic>\n                    leaf extract (MOLE) was fed to hybrid catfish (Heteroclarias,\n                    <jats:italic>Clarias gariepinus \u2640 \u00d7 Heterobranchus longifilis \u2642<\/jats:italic>\n                    ) to evaluate its effects on growth, hematological parameters, liver enzyme activity, antioxidant capacity, immunity and susceptibility to\n                    <jats:italic>Aeromonas hydrophila<\/jats:italic>\n                    infection. Fish (n = 300 fish, mean weight 9.3 \u00b1 0.2\u00a0g) were fed diets supplemented with 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0\u00a0g MOLE\/kg diet for 56 days. Thereafter, fish were challenged with molecularly characterized\n                    <jats:italic>A. hydrophila<\/jats:italic>\n                    (ATCC 4356; 5.0 \u00d7 10\n                    <jats:sup>5<\/jats:sup>\n                    CFU\/mL) infection for 14 days. Growth performance and feed intake of heteroclarias were significantly (\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u00a0&amp;lt;\u00a00.05) promoted with an increase in MOLE levels with an optimum of 1.25\u00a0g MOLE\/kg. It was noticed that final body weight, specific growth rate, and feed intake were increased with an increase in MOLE levels, and they are highly correlated. More so, dietary MOLE significantly evoked (\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u00a0&amp;lt;\u00a00.05) hematological profiles and antioxidant profiles of heteroclarias than the control group. Alanine aminotransferase was significantly reduced in fish fed MOLE-based diets compared to the fish fed a control diet, with their least value (27.27 IU\/L) observed in fish fed a diet with 1.5\u00a0g MOLE\/kg, while the highest was recorded in fish fed a control diet (32.03 IU\/L). Also, non-specific immune profiles were greatly promoted by dietary supplementation. Additionally, fish survival post\n                    <jats:italic>A. hydrophila<\/jats:italic>\n                    infection was higher in fish fed a 2.0\u00a0g MOLE\/kg diet (96.33%) than those fed a control diet (46.67%). This study revealed that MOLE administration enhanced the growth performance (linearly and quadratically), antioxidant (linearly), and innate immunity (linearly and quadratically) profiles of heteroclarias with an optimum level of 1.35 g\/kg of diet. Likewise, its addition to the diets evoked the survival of fish against\n                    <jats:italic>A. hydrophila<\/jats:italic>\n                    infection.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fphys.2026.1877528","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T04:21:44Z","timestamp":1785385304000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Growth, physiological, antioxidants, and immune response of heteroclarias catfish fingerlings, to dietary Moringa oleifera leaves extract and its susceptibility to Aeromonas hydrophila infection"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Bunmi E.","family":"Ajala","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Management, Federal University of Agriculture and Technology","place":["Okeho, Nigeria"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Al-ameen O.","family":"Abdulkareem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries, University of Ilorin","place":["Ilorin, Nigeria"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thais P.","family":"da Cruz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Science, Federal of Parana","place":["Curitiba, Brazil"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Eijaz Ahmed","family":"Bhat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbial Biochemistry Group, Institute of Phototrophic Microbiology, Heinrich-Heine University D\u00fcsseldorf, Universit\u00e4tsstra\u00dfe","place":["D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ashraf M.","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University","place":["Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"203","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1749-7345.2010.00360.x","article-title":"Use of green tea, Camellia sinensis L. in practical diet for growth and protection of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus Aeromonas hydrophila (L.), against infection","volume":"41","author":"Abdel-Tawwab","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. 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