Abaho, IvanAkoll, PeterJones, Clifford L.W.Masembe, Charles2022-12-272022-12-272022Abaho, I., Akoll, P., Jones, C. L., & Masembe, C. (2022). Dietary inclusion of pine pollen alters sex ratio and promotes growth of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, L. 1758). Aquaculture Reports, 27, 101407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aqrep.2022.101407https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aqrep.2022.101407https://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/6653The potential of pine pollen (PP) to masculinize sexually undifferentiated Nile tilapia was evaluated by feeding graded levels of PP (0.08–3.20 g kg-1 basal diet) to triplicate groups of three-day-old Nile tilapia for 28 days. Masculinization and associated differences in growth were compared to fish individuals fed the same basal diet with no PP (CT; negative control) and with 0.06 g 17α-methyltestosterone (MT) kg-1 basal diet (positive control). Both PP and MT treatments significantly skewed the expected 50:50 (male: female) ratio towards more male individuals. Notably, MT and 1.28 g PP kg-1 of diet produced a significantly high proportion of males (89.2 ± 2.2% and 80.0 ± 2.9% respectively), compared to 50.8 ± 2.2% in the CT treatment (P < 0.001). Except for 0.08 g PP kg-1 of diet, the final body weight and specific growth rate of individuals fed PP and MT-supplemented feeds were significantly higher than fish from the CT group. Although 1.28 g PP kg-1 diet produced the highest masculinization, the fish fed 3.20 g PP kg-1 diet had the highest final weight (14.73 ± 0.54 g), suggesting the presence of growth enhancers in PP. Similarly, a superior feed conversion ratio was recorded in both PP and MTtreated groups compared to the CT treatment (P = 0.024). However, the condition factor and survival rate of fish in all groups did not differ significantly. Overall, 1.28 g PP kg-1 diet was potent in sex inversion and promoted the growth of Nile tilapia, making PP a promising alternative to MT in the production of all-male stock.enAll-male tilapiaAquaculturePhytoextractPine pollenSynthetic hormone17α-methyltestosteroneArticle