Effect of Dietary Garlic Source on Feed Utilization, Growth and Histopathology of the African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

The effects of garlic on the growth, survival and histology of Clarias gariepinus were examined during the period of eight weeks. One hundred and eighty (180) fingerlings with initial mean weight of 3.90 ± 0.02 were stocked at 15 fish per net happa (0.8 cm x 0.6 cm x 0.4 cm) suspended in an earthen pond of (12 m x 12 m x 1.5 m). Triplicate groups of fish with garlic feed inclusion were fed at 3% body weight with four Iso-nitrogenous diet (40% crude protein) in Treatment Diet1 (TD1) (control), Treatment Diet2 (TD2) 10%, Treatment Diet3 (TD3) 20% and Treatment Diet4 (TD4) 30% respectively. At the end of the experiment, mean weight gain (MWG), Feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and total protein consumed (TPC) were statistically close among the Treatments. The highest MWG (53.63 ± 0.63) was recorded in fish fed with T4 while the lowest was recorded in fish fed T1 (41.73 ± 0.63). Specific growth ratio (SGR) was high in fish fed T4 (3.04 ± 0.06) and low in T3 (2.32 ± 0.04). The Treatment with the highest Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was T3 (2.57 ± 0.03) and the lowest was in T1 (2.11 ± 0.05). The overall best Treatment was Treatment 4 with 30% inclusion level of garlic source. The histological examinations show no visible lesion in the liver and gut of all the Treatments except Treatment 3 with diffuse vacuolar degeneration of the hepatocytes, the gills in Treatment 4 has the epithelial cells of the secondary lamellae fused and proliferated. Result obtained in this study indicated that 30% garlic inclusion rate in a compounded feed helps in feed utilization and growth Performance with no negative effect to the tissues.