EFFECT OF WORMSEED PLANTS; ARTEMISIA CINA L. AND CHAMOMILE; MATRICARIA CHAMOMILLA L. ON NON SPECIFIC IMMUNE RESPONSE OF CLARIAS GARIEPINUS (AFRICAN CATFISH)

EFFECT OF WORMSEED PLANTS; ARTEMISIA CINA L. AND CHAMOMILE; MATRICARIA CHAMOMILLA L. ON NON SPECIFIC IMMUNE RESPONSE OF CLARIAS GARIEPINUS (AFRICAN CATFISH)

Osama A. Saleh; Saleh F. Sakr and Yasser M. Abdelhadi

Dept. of Fish Diseases, Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research (CLAR), Abbassa, Agriculture Research Center, Egypt.

Received 16/ 3/ 2010 Accepted 25/ 4/ 2010

Abstract

A number of four hundreds and twenty fingerlings of Clarias gariepinus (African catfish) were used to examine the effect of wormseed plants and chamomile on the growth parameters and on non specific immune response of the African catfish; Clarias gariepinus. Both types of herbs were used in rates of 1, 3 and 5% with 3 replicates per each of the 6 treatments. The 7^th treatment was kept as a control group. African catfish were fed with the 7 examined diets in the rate of 3% of fish biomass for 1 month. Different growth parameters as well as blood parameters were estimated to evaluate the growth performance and immune response of the experimented catfish. Results revealed that wormseed plants; Artemisia cina L. in the rate of 3% and 5% and chamomile; Matricaria chamomilla L. in the rate of 1% showed significance, growth parameters as well as immune response parameters of the examined African catfish.

Key words: Clarias gariepinus, Artemisia cina, Chamomile, immune response.