Histological changes in juveniles of African catfish (<i>Clarias gariepinus</i>) exposed to amino force® (2, 4 d-dimethylammonium salt)

Abstract

The histological changes of exposed juveniles of African Catfish C. gariepinus to a commonly used herbicide, Amino force^® was studied for 28 days. The toxicity was carried out using A hundred and twelve (112) healthy and active fish which were divided into four treatments with each treatment having ten fish and the setup was in triplicate. Some water quality parameters where evaluated during the period of the experiment. Chronic concentrations of Amino force^® (0.0mg/L, 6.2mg/L, 18.5mg/L and 30.8mg/L) determined from the LC₅₀ value of 360mg/L in an earlier study were used. Data for water quality parameters obtained were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) at P< 0.05. Water quality results showed increase in TDS and EC, with decrease in DO as the concentrations increased while PH and temperature did not differ significantly (P>0.05). Histopathological changes in the liver were Necrosis, Vacuolation, Dilatation of the Hepatic cells and Blood congestion. In the gills, there were Distortion of the gill filaments, Blood congestion, epithelial cells Erosion, Destruction and Shortening of the lamellae. These histopathological changes observed showed increasing degrees of damage with increase in concentration of amino force^®.

Keywords: Histology, African catfish, and Amino force^®