Abstract
Climate change and global warming are concerning issues impacting various industries. In the aquaculture industry, these issues are more important in coldwater species, like rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. Hence, strategies to control these negative effects are worthy of study. Herbal feed additives are reliable tools to increase fish growth and health, thereby mitigating the drawbacks of climate change on fish. In this study, three diets containing 100 (100EO), 200 (200EO), and 400 (400EO) mg/kg essential oil of Abies sibirica (SBF) along with a control diet (CTL; unsupplemented) were fed to triplicate groups of fish for 60 days. Then the fish were exposed to a 96 h heat stress (25 °C) to monitor their survival and biochemical responses. The results showed that growth performance, feed efficiency, heat stress resistance, intestinal activity of digestive enzymes, and skin mucus immunological parameters significantly (p < 0.05) increased in the SBF essential oil treatments, and the highest increases were observed in the 100EO treatment, followed by the 200EO group. Dietary supplementation with SBF essential oil significantly (p < 0.05) mitigated heat stress-induced increases in plasma cortisol and glucose. Moreover, dietary SBF essential oil significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced immunological parameters such as plasma and intestinal lysozyme and immunoglobulin levels, and improved hepatic antioxidant defenses (including catalase, glutathione peroxidase, total antioxidant capacity, and reduced glutathione), while reducing lipid peroxidation. These effects were most pronounced in the 100EO and 200EO treatments, with the highest performance being observed in the former group. In conclusion, dietary SBF essential oil at 100 mg/kg is capable of augmenting growth performance, immunity, and antioxidant capacity, and suppressing physiological stress, thereby augmenting fish resilience against heat stress.