EFFECT OF HERBAL BIOEXTRACT ON SURVIVAL RATE OF NILE TILAPIA FINGERLINGS INJECTED WITH Aeromonas hydrophila  

Pattareeya Ponza*, Supachok Songsiri, Kankanit Pisamayarom, Touchpol Karakade and Supat Ponza
 
 Program of Fisheries Science
 Department of Agricultural Science,
 Faculty of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment
 Naresuan university, Phitsanulok province 65000, Thailand
 email pattareeyap@nu.ac.th
 

Plant product have been identified and reported to accelerate growth and enhance immunity in fish to parasites and bacterial infection as their phytochemical richness such as alkaloids, terapenoids, saponin and flavonoids. Due to Thailand is a tropical countries, the availability of herbs and application has been well known. Kariyat (Andrographis paniculata Burm.f. Wall.ex Nees) has been used as local medicinal plant against cold in human for years. It was reported that the major compounds in this plant comprised of andrographolides. This plant has been extracted in water, methanol and ethanol prior to supplemented into fish feed. Another local used for general purposes is Noni (Morinda citrifolia L.) In this study, the plants were shredded into small pieces before fermenting with carbon source (brown sugar) and water to encourage bioextraction process for 30 days. After that the aqueous part was retrieved and mixed with the pelleted feed (30% protein) to feed tilapia fingerlings (3-5 g/fish) for 60 days. Growth performance, together with blood parameters, was monitored. Then the fish was challenged by intraperitoneally injecting with Aeromonas hydrophila at 3.8 x 106 CFU/fish. Mortality of the fish showing signs of diseases (hemorrhage at the fins and skin) was recorded for 14 days. Results of this study showed that the experimental diet did not affect growth of the fish and blood parameters observed (P>0.05).  The survival rate of fish received Andrographis and Noni bioextract supplemented diets were lower than that of the control group (Figure 1). This study aimed to examine the effect of herbal bioextract in feed fed to tilapia fingerling on immunity and growth. It could be indicated that herbal bioextract in this experiment added to fish diet could possibly affect their immunity. Further experiment regarding including these herbs or its pure extraction in fish diet will be investigated.