Therapeutic effect of different doses of antibiotic-enrofloxacin (10%) on induced pseudomonas aeruginosa in juvenile african catfish (<i>Clarias gariepinus</i>)

Abstract

There is increase in bacteria disease outbreak with intensive aquaculture leading to high mortality and economic loss. Most available drugs have not been very effective and are also very expensive. This study therefore investigate the colony forming unit (cfu) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that can establish infection and the minimum therapeutic dose of enrofloxacin(10%) that can be used to control the infection in Clarias gariepinus juveniles. The experiment was divided into two; the first was carried out for six weeks in 15litres of water in plastic aquaria (53×36×28cm3). Each aquarium was stocked with 10 C. gariepinus juveniles (44.51±2.69g) and exposed to 3ml of P. aeruginosa with different colony forming unit (cfu) per ml (10-7, 10-9, 10-11, 10-12 and 0-0). The second experiment has different concentration of enrofloxacin (10%) i.e. 0ml/l, 0.25ml/l, 0.5ml/l, 1.0ml/l and l.5ml/l but with the same bacteria colony forming unit of 10-7 except for treatment six which served as the control. The experiment lasted for three weeks and treatment commenced immediately mortality was recorded. Water quality of the experimental set-up was monitored using standard methods. Data obtained were analyzed using analysis of variance. The cfu of P. aeruginosa that caused the highest mortality (70%) in C. gariepinus juvenile was 10-7 while the concentration of enrofloxacin that was most effective in treating C. gariepinus juvenile and enhanced highest weight gain was 0.5ml/l which was significantly different (P <0.05) from the other treatments except the control.

Keywords: Clarias gariepinus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enrofloxacin, Colony forming unit