Effects of dietary sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia) leaf extract on growth performance and serum biochemical profile of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fingerlings
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Fisheries Society of Nigeria
Abstract
This study investigated the growth performance and serum biochemical profile of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings. The fish were fed diets fortified with sunflower leaf extract (SLE) at 0.0 (positive control), 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0 g/kg diet and the negative control diet containing 0.5 g synthetic antibiotic (A) /kg diet for 70 days. After the feeding trial, blood samples were collected from the fish for analysis of biochemical parameters using standard procedures. The data obtained were subjected to one-way analysis of variance and differences among means were established at P < 0.05. The weight gain, specific growth rate, nitrogen metabolism, and fish productivity index were significantly enhanced in fish fed SLE-based diets, compared to those fed the control diets. Higher protein efficiency ratio and lower feed conversion ratio were obtained in fish fed 0.5 – 1.5g SLE/kg diets, compared to those fed the control diets. The quadratic regression with respect to weight gain showed 1.13g/kg diet as the optimum inclusion level in C. gariepinus. The serum total protein, albumin, globulin, blood urea nitrogen and glucose were not altered significantly with dietary SLE. It could be concluded that sunflower leaf extract has growth-promoting property and its inclusion at 1.0g/kg diet is recommended for the optimum growth performance of Clarias gariepinus.