Abstract

The study investigated the effects of dietary fermented and autoclaved castor seed meal on growth performance, hematology and carcass composition of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings. 150 Clarias gariepinus fingerlings were randomly distributed into 5 groups of ten fish per tank each to five treatments. The experimental design is a complete randomise design in which there were three replicates for each treatment. The experimental diets which were designated 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% respectively were is-nitrogenous (42% Crude Protein content) and isocalorie meal was T3 (10%) inclusion as it gave the best WG (13.83g), SGR (1.31), RGR (1.34), and the lowest FCR (1.39) when compared with t2 (5%), t$(15%) and T5(20%). The lowest growth and feed utilisation parameters were observed in diet T5(20%). The carcass composition showed that crude protein and moisture of fish fed the control were significantly higher (p<0.o05) than the fish fed the CSM5, CSM10, CSM15 and CSM20 and while for the fat content, ASH and Nitrogen free extract of the fish fed CSM20 was significantly higher than CSM15, CSM10, CSM5 and the treatment respectively. The weight gain of fish also decrease with increase in castor seed meal replacement level above 10%. The use of castor seed meal at 10% inclusion level was the best because there was no significant difference between control diets T1 and (10%) T3 (P < 0.05). The results of the haematological parameters showed that the packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin (Hb), Red Blood Cell, Neutrophils values were significantly (P<0.05) higher in control compared to CSM5, CSM10, CSM15 and CSM20, but the parked cell volume, haemoglobin, Red Blood Cell and Netrophils were similar (p>0.05) for CSM15 and CSM20 and Control and CSM10. While CSM5 showed no significant difference from the others. Mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration of the fish shows similar effect (p>0.05) in control and CSM5 but were significantly (P <0,05) different in CSM10, CSM15 and CSM20. Hence in conclusion, 10% is the best replacement level for soybean meal with no deleterious effect on the growth of the Clarias gariepinus fingerlings. The use of castor seed meal at 10% replacement level fo soybean is recommended in the diet of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings.