Effects of Macleaya cordata Extract on Growth Performance, Serum Biochemical Parameters, and Intestinal Health of Juvenile American Eel (Anguilla rostrata)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

L31 Authors said “the use of synthetic additives (e.g., antibiotics and chemotherapy) can cause resistance strains and environmental hazards”. However, antibiotics and other additives are not always synthetic, and non-synthetic additives also sometimes cause problems. I think it would be more appropriated to state that additives with milder adverse effects need to be pursue.

L120  Does “the amount” in “(the average amount of feed consumption)” mean daily amount or total amount?

L319 Shouldn’t “OUTs” be corrected to “OTUs”?

Author Response

Extensive editing of English language and style. required

Re: Many thanks for your advices about the editing of English language and style. We invited the native English expert to help us to revise the manuscript. There are extensive modifications in the revised manuscript.

Does the introduction provide sufficient background and include all relevant references? Must be improved

Re: The introduction was improved in the revised manuscript. We added some relevant sentences and references to provide sufficient background, please see the revised manuscript.

L31 Authors said “the use of synthetic additives (e.g., antibiotics and chemotherapy) can cause resistance strains and environmental hazards”. However, antibiotics and other additives are not always synthetic, and non-synthetic additives also sometimes cause problems. I think it would be more appropriated to state that additives with milder adverse effects need to be pursue.

Re: Many thanks for your suggestion, we rewrote these sentences. Please see the revised manuscript.

L120  Does “the amount” in “(the average amount of feed consumption)” mean daily amount or total amount?

Re: It should be the weight of feed intake, we modified the formulation, please see the revised manuscript

L319 Shouldn’t “OUTs” be corrected to “OTUs”?

Re: Thanks for your reminding about the spelling err. We corrected the “OTUs” in the revised manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript evaluated the Mcordata extract in juvenile American eel. Plant extracts have been widely researched as potential additives in diets for aquatic organisms. Although some previous results exist and it is an additive that already has a commercialization license, in fact, there are still several aspects to be better elucidated. The article is well written, discussed and generally presented. Only a few notes were made in the attached file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

We made the extensive editing of English language and style in the revised manuscript. please see the changes in red color.

Many thanks for your suggestion. We rewrote the content highlighted in yellow color that you mentioned, please see the modification in the 2.1. Feeding Trial and 2.8 Statistical Analysis in the revised manuscript.