Effects of dietary supplementation of Parkia biglobosa pulp on growth performance and physiological status of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec> <jats:title>Background</jats:title> <jats:p>The present study investigated the effect of dietary <jats:italic>Parkia biglobosa</jats:italic> pulp (PBP) on the growth performance and blood profile of mixed sex <jats:italic>Clarias gariepinus</jats:italic>. The PBP meal was supplemented with the basal diets at 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0% and fed to <jats:italic>C. gariepinus</jats:italic> fingerlings for 12 weeks.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Supplementing the diets of <jats:italic>C. gariepinus</jats:italic> with 1.0–2.0% PBP enhanced (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &lt; 0.05) the weight gain, specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio and reduced (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &lt; 0.05) feed conversion ratio with the highest performance at 2.0% inclusion level, compared to the control diet. The red blood cell counts of the fish fed PBP-supplemented diets did not differ (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &gt; 0.05) from those fed the control diet while the lymphocyte counts was boosted (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &lt; 0.05) with dietary PBP. Dietary supplementation with 1.0–2.0% PBP enhanced (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &lt; 0.05) synthesis of total protein and albumin in the experimental fish while all fish fed PBP-supplemented diets had lower (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &lt; 0.05) levels of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>The present study showed that 1.0–2.0% PBP enhanced growth and nutrient utilization, lymphocytes, serum albumin and total protein and reduced serum liver enzymes, indicating the growth-promoting, immunostimulating and hepatoprotective effects of PBP in <jats:italic>C. gariepinus</jats:italic> Therefore, supplementation of PBP meal as feed additive in the basal diet of <jats:italic>Clarias gariepinus</jats:italic> at 2.0% is recommended.</jats:p> </jats:sec>