Haematology Responses in African Catfish (Clarias Gariepinus) Exposed to Atrazine in The Laboratory

Amachree D, Akinrotimi OA, Owhonda KN, Nwosu PO and Nwoye OB

Published on: 2025-02-03

Abstract

Aquatic pollution as a results of herbicide application has increased tremendously in recent years. Haematology is one of the viable bio markers in assessing the impact of chemical toxicity in fish. This study was carried out to evaluate the toxicity of Atrazine a common herbicide on haematological parameters of Clarias gariepinus. One hundred and fifty (150) C. gariepinus juveniles of mean length 11.74±2.64cm and mean weight 256.68±1.81g were exposed to different concentrations of atrazine (0.00mg/1 – control, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20mg/1) for 96hours to determine its effect on haematological parameters of the fish. The results obtained indicated that significant (P<0.05) reductions with increased concentrations of the chemical were recorded in hemoglobin (HB), Red blood Cell (RBC), packed cell volume (PCV), platelets and       mean corpuscular hemoglobin volume (MCV). While significant (P<0.05) increase comparable to the control values were observed in white blood cell (WBC), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration MCHC. The data obtained from this work will contribute to the base line haematological parameters in monitoring the health status of Clarias gariepinus in the aquatic environment.