1466 | wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/anu Aquaculture Nutrition. 2018;24:1466–1473. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1 | INTRODUCTION The White leg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, an important rearing species, is native to the west coast of Latin America in the Pacific Ocean. The species is the main candidate in crustacean’s culture in most developing countries, mainly due to its highly fed efficiency, growth performance and resistance to unsuitable environmen- tal conditions. Over the past two decades, Iran’s shrimp farming industry has been affected by the occurrence of various diseases such as white spot virus disease and various bacterial diseases that can result in inevitable losses (Lem, 2006). Today, aquaculture has gained a special place among human food sources. One of the basic practices used to supply human’s need to protein is rearing fish. Therefore, accompanied by the increase in human population in recent decades, most researchers have at- tempted to present more innovative ways for increasing production Received: 6 January 2018 | Accepted: 26 February 2018 DOI: 10.1111/anu.12683 ORIGINAL ARTICLE A Comparison between dietary effects of Cuminum cyminum essential oil and Cuminum cyminum essential oil, loaded with iron nanoparticles, on growth performance, immunity and antioxidant indicators of white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) M. Sheikh Asadi 1 | A. Gharaei 2 | J. Mirdar Harijani 1 | A. Arshadi 1 1 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran 2 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, Hamoon International Wetland Research Institute, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran Correspondence Ahmad Gharaei, Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources and Hamoon International Wetland Research Institute, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran. Email: agharaei551@uoz.ac.ir Abstract This study evaluates the effect of dietary cumin essential oil’s (CEO) and cumin es- sential oil’s loaded iron nanoparticles (CEO-loaded NPs) on growth performance, haematological parameters and antioxidant status of white leg shrimp. Shrimps with the initial weight of 3.38 ± 0.014 g were allocated into 15 fibreglass tanks (300 L, 60 shrimps per tank) and were fed with five experimental diets containing 0 g/kg CEO (the control diet), 5 g/kg CEO, 10 g/kg CEO, 5 g/kg CEO-NPs and 10 g/kg CEO-NPs for 56 days. After 56 days of culture, the shrimps fed with CEO and CEO-loaded NPs supplemented diets showed a more significant increase in growth performance ( p < .05) than in the control diet. Total haemocyte count (THC) value, large-granule cells (LGC), hyaline cells (HC)%, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Alkaline phos- phatase (AKP) activity were significantly higher ( p < .05) in the shrimps fed with CEO and CEO-loaded NPs supplemented diets than the shrimps fed with the control diet. Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) enzyme activities along with the glucose and choles- terol concentrations significantly decreased in the shrimps fed with the CEO and CEO-loaded NPs supplemented diets more than those fed with the control diet. The results suggest that the dietary CEO-loaded NPs can improve the growth perfor - mance, the health status and the antioxidant capacity of L. vannamei. KEYWORDS antioxidant status, cholesterol, cumin (Cuminum cyminum), glucose, Litopenaeus vannamei, nanoparticles