Blood condition of Pangasius hypophthalmus fed with turmeric enriched pellets and infected with Aeromonas hydrophila

Abstract

Turmeric is commonly used as stimulant and it is an important ingredient in tradisional herbal medication. A study aims to understand the blood condition of Pangasius hypophthalmus fed on turmeric enriched pellets and were infected with Aeromonas hydrophila has been conducted from August to October 2018. There were 3 treatments applied; namely P1: Fishes were fed with turmeric enriched pellets of 0.5 g/Kg feed, P2 (0.7 g/Kg feed) and P3 (0.9 g/Kg feed). The negative control (Pn) were the fish that was not receive any treatment, while the positive control (Pp) was the fish that was infected with A. hydrophila, and was not given turmeric powder. Fourteen days after being fed on turmeric enriched pellets, the fishes were infected with Aeromonas hydrophila (0.1 ml of 108 of A. hydrophila culture). Totally 15 fishes from each treatments were studied. Blood were taken from vena caudalis using 1 ml syringe wet with 10% EDTA and then were checked using binocular microscope for erythrocyte and leucocyte number. Haematocrite and leukocrite levels and types of leucocyte were also studied. Results shown that the blood condition of turmeric treated fishes were different. The total erythrocyte of the negative control (Pn) fishes was 2.136.670 cells/mm3, the positive control (Pp) was 1.423.300 cells/mm3 and that of the treated fishes ranged from 1.520.000 to 2.886.700 cells/mm3. While the number of the leucocytes of the negative control fishes was 153.200 cells/mm3, the postive control (Pp) showing infectious condition with 726.000 leucocyte cells/mm3. The leucocyte number of the turmeric treated fishes (P1, P2 and P3) showing normal values, ranged from 107.000 to 2.069.000 cells/mm3. Based on data obtained, it can be concluded that the turmeric enriched pellets improved the ability of the fish to cope the problems caused by A. hydrophila infection