EVALUATION OF DIETARY ADDITION OF GARLIC (ALLIUM SATIVUM L.) LOBES ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, FEED UTILIZATION, AND PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS, FINGERLINGS

EVALUATION OF DIETARY ADDITION OF GARLIC (ALLIUM SATIVUM L.) LOBES ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, FEED UTILIZATION, AND PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS, FINGERLINGS

Mehrim, A.I.; Khalil, F.F. and Refaey, M.M.

Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt.

Abstract

Garlic (Allium sativum) is one of the earliest known medicinal plants and has been used to improve growth and resistance of a number of livestock and fish. The present study was carried out to evaluate the effects of dietary supplemented by dried garlic (A. sativum) lobes (DGL) on growth performance, feed utilization, chemical composition of the whole fish body, and physiological parameters of monosex Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus fingerlings for 60 days. Fish with average body weight (17.14 ± 0.35) were randomly distributed into four treatments (0, 1, 2, 3% DGL / kg diet).Results revealed that 1% DGL was the best treatments, which gave the highest significantly (P ≤ 0.05) values in growth performance, feed utilization, chemical composition of the whole fish body and hematological and biochemical parameters among all treatments. So, it is recommended that the inclusion of 1% DGL / kg diet as feed additives of all male monosex O. niloticus are more useful for improving their growth performance, feed utilization, chemical composition of the whole fish body and physiological responses.

Keywords: Nile tilapia, Garlic, Growth performance, Physiological parameters.