Histopathological changes in liver and kidney of sharptooth catfish fed on cooked Jatropha curcas seedmeal based diets

Abstract

Introduction: Histology of the organs of fish species is important in the understanding of the pathological changes related to nutritional sources. This study evaluates the histopathological alteration in the liver and kidney of sharptooth catfish fed diets containing Jatropha curcas seedmeal in a 56-day feeding trial. Methods: Clarias gariepinus fingerlings of average weight 2.61±0.02g were acclimatized for a week, and allotted into five dietary treatments; containing 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% Jatropha curcas seedmeal replacement levels for soybean meal respectively. Each treatment was replicated three times with fifteen fish per replicate. Fish were fed 5% body weight on two equal proportions per day. Histological assessment was conducted using standard procedure. Results: There were no lesions on the photomicrographs of the kidney of fish exposed to all the dietary treatments while moderate vacuolation of the hepatocytes was observed in the liver of fish fed diet D1-control diet. There were very prominent melanomicrophage centres in the liver of Clarias gariepinus fed test diet D3 with some hepatocytes which appeared vacuolated. The trend of vacuolation of hepatocytes of the liver among some treatments were not dietary related as no visible lesions were seen in the liver of fish fed test diets D2 ; D4 and D5. Significance: This study established that Jatropha curcas based diets exert hepatoprotective effect on the liver of fish fed with the diets.