European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

HISTOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF CLARIAS GARIEPINUS’ KIDNEY: AN ECOTOXICOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF MGBUOBA FISH POND

Allison, Theodore Athanasius and *Paul, Chikwuogwo wokpeogu

ABSTRACT

Background: Ecotoxicological investigation of fish farms has become paramount as fish farming is growing by the day. Fish farming is a very prominent practice in Nigeria and lucrative as owners of such farms make fortunes from it. There are speculations that some of these farms operate below standard and breed unhealthy fishes for commercial consumption. Materials and Methods: The sampling involved harvesting of table-sized fish: twenty fishes from MGBUOBA and ten fishes from ARAC. The histological assessment involved the determination of the qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of the kidneys of the harvested fishes. Results: The following results were obtained: Haemorrhage 0% in ARAC, 7.6% in Mgbuoba, Vacuolation 14.3% ARAC, Mgbuoba 22.7%, Regressive Change (RC): Necrosis 19.0% in ARAC, Mgbuoba 20.2%, Structural Alteration in ARAC 28.6%, Mgbuoba 26.1%, Melano-Macrophage Centers 38.1% in ARAC and Mgbuoba 23.5%. The Average Percentage Prevalence was 20.0% in ARAC and Mgbuoba 20.02%. Conclusion: There were distortions seen in the kidney and these distortions evidently were a result of contamination of the aquatic habitat of the fish (pond) which could be attributed to poor hygiene and management of the fish farm.

Keywords: Kidney, ARAC, Vacuolation, Necrosis, Haemorrhage, Mgbuoba.