Improved Growth Rate and Feed Utilization in Farmed African Catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1822) Through a Growth Promoter Biogen7 Supplementation

摘要

The present study was conducted to examine probiotic treatment in the diet of African catfish Clarias gariepinus . A total of 240 of African catfish (weight ranged from 81.13 to 91.35 g) were divided in the five experimental groups. The experiment was conducted for 120 days. Experimental diets were identical in all except for the variation in probiotic levels. A probiotic (Biogen7) was used at 0% (control), 0.5% (diet 2), 1.0% (diet 3), 1.5% (diet 4) and 2.0% (diet 5) inclusion rates in the experimental diets. The growth performance and nutrient utilization of African catfish including Weight Gain (WG), Specific Growth Rate (SGR), Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER), Protein Productive Value (PPV) and Energy Retention (ER) were significantly (p#0.05) higher of fish fed diets containing 0.5% Biogen7 than for fish fed control diets. In the same trend fish fed 0.5% Biogen7 recorded the best-Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) (p#0.05) compare to the control diet. However, among the probiotic fed groups no significant differences were recorded (p$0.05). Concerning the influence of different dietary probiotic levels on chemical proximate analysis of whole carcass, protein content was significantly higher (p#0.05) at 0.5% inclusion, while, fish fed diet containing 1.0% Biogen7 recorded the highest ash content without significant (p$0.05) difference with the other treatments. Differences were observed in carcass lipid and gross energy content with significantly lowest (p#0.05) values recorded in fish fed 2.0% Biogen7. The production performance and subsequent cost-benefit analyses clearly indicated that the diets containing 0.5% probiotic Biogen7 recorded the highest net return compared to the control diet. Based on the result of this study, it is concluded that Biogen7 positively influenced growth performance and feed utilization of African catfish as well as the economic efficiency.