Abstract
Fishes are largely used for the assessment of aquatic environment quality and are accepted as bioindicators of environmental pollution. Studies of Hematology provide useful information on the effects of the external environment on the internal physiology of fish. This present study aims to evaluate the variation in blood parameters of Clarias buthupogon and Heterobranchus longifilis. Different hematological and biochemical indices like red blood corpuscles (RBC), white blood corpuscles (WBC), haemoglobin (Hb%), haematocrite (PCV) and erythrocyte indices like mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), total Protein, glucose, cholesterol, albumin, chloride, hydrogen carbonate, potassium, sodium and calcium were determined using standard laboratory procedures. Generally, haematological indices were significantly (p<0.05) low in the dry season compared to rainy season. Plasma protein was low in the dry season (4.56 ± 1.45 g/dl) and slightly high during rainy season (11.12 ± 19.72 g/dl) and downstream A (3.73 ± 1.37 g/dl) to downstream B (11.94 ± 19.40 g/dl). Glucose level was high at downstream A (156 ± 12.12 g/dl) and in the dry season (150.94 ± 12.53 g/dl) while there was no significant correlation between the value of albumin (p<0.05) but there were significant correlations (p<0.05) for other biochemical indices for both sampling sites and seasons. Observation of blood parameters allows the most rapid detection of changes in fish after the exposure to xenobiotics. It can be concluded that hematological and biochemical parameters could be ranked as possible biomarkers of pollution.
Highlights
Influx of unwanted substances into our water bodies cause changes in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the aquatic system which lead to ecological imbalance
In view of the above, this work aimed at evaluating the impact of water pollution on the haematological and biochemical indices of C. buthupogon and H. longifilis collected from Asa River, Nigeria
The results revealed that the PCV, Hb and red blood corpuscles (RBC) counts in fishes showed significantly higher value during rainy season as compared to dry season
Summary
Influx of unwanted substances into our water bodies cause changes in the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the aquatic system which lead to ecological imbalance. A greater part of the pollutants exhibit biomagnification and bioaccumulation capabilities with a broad spectrum of impacts, and stresses on aquatic organisms (Censi et al, 2006). This leads to a steady decline in the aquatic flora and fauna, fishes. Like fish, accumulate pollutants directly from contaminated water and indirectly through the food chain (Riba et al, 2004 and Ashraf, 2005). Once the toxicant enters the body of the fish they may affect the organs leading to physiological and pathological disorders (Ogundiran et al, 2009)
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