Nutrient Enhancing and Flesh Quality Improvement in Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Fed Dietary Sweet Potato (Ipomoa batatas) Leaves Aqueous Extract

Abstract

Dietary sweet potato (I. batatas) leaves extract was assessed for nutrient enhancing ability and improvement of flesh quality in catfish (C. gariepinus). Thirty five (35) % crude protein feed was formulated using locally available ingredients. Four different diets were prepared from the formulated feed by adding varying quantities of sweet potato leaves extracts as follows: Oml/kg; 50ml/kg; 100ml/kg; and 150ml/kg and labeled as Do, D1, D2 and D3 respectively. One hundred and twenty (120) sub-adult C. gariepinus were used for the experiment, they were divided into four groups in triplicates of ten (10). Feeding with the experimental diets (Do-D3) commenced after two weeks of acclimatization and they were fed for eight (8) weeks, and water quality parameters such as temperature, dissolve oxygen and pH were determined daily, and measurement of length and weight was done fortnightly. After the feeding period, fish were collected from each of the groups for proximate composition analysis and organoleptic assessment. The proximate composition of the diets were also done to assess the effects of I. batatas on the quality of the diets. The results revealed the following: (i) the diets had no effects on the assessed water quality parameters; (ii) there were no significance difference in the proximate composition of the experimental diets; (iii) the I. batatas leave   extracts enhanced the lipids, protein and fibre contents on the flesh of C. gariepinus; (iv) the I. batatas improves texture, taste, appearance and general acceptability of C. gariepinus flesh; (v) nutrient utilization parameters such as protein intake (PI), protein efficiency ratio (PER), protein retention (PR), fat retention (FR) and net protein utilization (NPU) increases significantly as the quantity of I. batatas extracts increases in the diets (Do- D3). It was concluded that sweet potato (I. batatas) leaves extracts improves nutrients utilization and flesh quality in C. gariepinus by enhancing bioavailability, digestion and absorption of nutrients.