Ameliorative effect of dietary supplementation of kinnow peel powder on the health status of Cyprinus carpio (L.) fingerlings

Abstract

An outdoor feeding trial (120 days) was carried out in FRP pools (1.5 × 1.0 × 0.75 m) to evaluate the efficacy of dietary incorporation of kinnow peel powder (KPP) on the health status of common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) fingerlings. Healthy fingerlings (av. length 9.19 cm, and av. weight 10.51 g) were stocked in five feeding treatments @ 15 nos./tank following a complete randomized design with three replicates for each treatment and daily fed with five iso-proteinous experimental feeds containing KPP at 0 (KPP0), 0.5 (KPP1), 1.0 (KPP2), 1.50 (KPP3) and 2.0% (KPP4) inclusion levels @ 2% of fish body weight. The results demonstrated that the water quality parameters remained within the optimum/permissible limit for freshwater carps in all the treatments. Further, KPP supplementation improved the haematological indices (total erythrocyte count, total leucocyte count, haemoglobin and haematocrit) and immunological parameters (serum total protein, Albumin (A), globulin (G) and A: G ratio) of fish at all the inclusion levels in respect to control, while the best (P0.05) findings observed at 1.5% KPP inclusion level. Additionally, in comparison with the control group, KPP supplementation decreased the glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, lipid peroxidation level, being lowest (P0.05) in KPP3, while increased the superoxide dismutase activity and recorded highest (P0.05) in KPP3 group. The results revealed that KPP can be potentially utilized as health promoting natural feed additive at a 1.5 % inclusion level to improve the overall health condition of C. carpio fingerlings.