High dosages of pectin and cellulose cause different degrees of damage to the livers and intestines of Pelteobagrus fulvidraco

Abstract Non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs) are important anti-nutritional factors in plant by-product sources, and the adverse impact of high doses of NSPs on fish physiology has not received sufficient attention. A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the physiological effects of high dietary pectin and cellulose, two NSPs with different water solubilities, on the yellow catfish, Pelteobagrus fulvidraco. A diet with 300 g kg−1 dextrin was used as the control (CON diet). In test diets, dextrin was replaced with 300 g kg−1 pectin (PEC diet), cellulose (CEL diet), or a mixture of pectin and cellulose (1:1, MPC diet). Each diet was randomly assigned to triplicate groups of juvenile yellow catfish (5.80 ± 0.20 g). Fish were fed twice daily to apparent satiation for 8 weeks. The growth performance, apparent digestibility coefficients, hepatosomatic index, serum concentration of triglycerides, total cholesterol, total protein, albumin, seroglobulin and the activities of alkaline phosphatase and cholinesterase were significantly decreased in fish fed the PEC diet compared with those in fish fed the CON diet (P