Effect of Dairy effluent and Neem oil on the physiology of Clarias gariepinus (Burchell)
*Amthul Azeez and M. Vijayalakshmi
P.G and Research Department of Zoology JBAS College for Women, Teynampet, Chennai- 600018 (India) *Corresponding author email: amthulzoology@gmail.com, amthulazeez@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Dairy industry is one of the major industries contributing to the economy of various communities and also to economic growth of the nations. However, the effluent from these dairy farms is frequently dumped in to the water bodies, leading to heavy water pollution, and thus making the waters unfit for aquatic life. Aquatic animals, particularly fish seem to be greatly affected by the contaminants, thus disturbing the food chain and also impacting the ecological balance. In this regard, the present study was undertaken, to study the impact of dairy effluent on fish. Hardy fish belonging to the species, Clarias gariepinus was selected for the study and was exposed to different concentrations of diary effluent. Various scientific studies have suggested that neem oil can be quite effective as an absorbent of dairy effluent and hence the fish were also exposed to exclusive neem oil treatment and also to a diverse combination of effluent along with neem oil moiety. Four different tissues - liver, gill, brain and muscle were selected for the study. Fishes were divided in to six different groups and were exposed to various concentrations of effluent, neem oil and also a combination of effluent with neem oil. Important biochemical compounds such as total free sugars, total protein and total lipids were estimated in different groups of fish. All the six groups of fish, showed a significant (P < 0.001) decline in total free sugars, total protein and total lipids. This decline may be attributed to gluconeogenesis, occurring in various tissues, so as to tide over the unfavorable conditions and survive in the effluent waters. Though neem oil was used to neutralize the effluent, it however did not have much of an impact on the effluent waters. This may be because the concentrations of neem oil may not be sufficient to nullify the effluent. Further studies may be conducted in future to effectively treat the dairy effluent using neem oil.