Effectiveness of garlic extract in treatment of white spots disease in Nile tilapia

Abstract

While aquaculture is skyrocketing in not only in Uganda but worldwide, Nile Tilapia being one of the leading farmed species, this has resulted in outbreak and upsurge of fish diseases including white spots disease. With most local farmers lacking appropriate information about the prevention and treatment measures, some farmers find their way in using synthetic chemicals which are detrimental to human health and environmental sustainability as such, they alter the quality of fish produced in aquaculture and also may give a way for resistant strains of the parasite which may pose a great threat to aquaculture sector globally. The study therefore compared the survival rate of parasite on a fish treated with garlic extract in different concentrations (0mg/L, 3mg/L, 5mg/L and).Additionally, study compared the performance of fish treated with garlic extract of same concentration to assess the effectiveness of the treatment not only on lethality of parasite but also on performance of treated fish. The data on weight of fish, number of white spots on 3 day routine for 15days was collected following the right procedures from ponds at experimental station (Rwebitaba ZARDI, Fort portal). The results revealed a marked difference in the survival rate of the Ich parasite (white spots) P =0.002, (P< 0.05) in different concentrations, regardless of the survival rate decrease in the number of parasite with treatment, the present study results indicate that weight differences in different concentrations is not significant (P = 0.696).Therefore the treatment doesn't affect the weight in the present study although it showed a lethal effect to the parasite in the study. As a result therefore, survival of the parasite reduced over time with treatment. Evidently, the results provide baseline information through which stakeholders in aquaculture can operate to ensure maximization of aquaculture production while ensuring environmental sustainability. Survival rate of parasite results can clearly indicate that garlic extract can treat the white spot disease since it’s lethal to the parasite, likewise growth rate results show that growth can continue to happen in fish even when treatment is still being applied although not influenced by the concentration of the extract. Hence garlic extract can be the best fit alternative for non-biodegradable and carcinogenic chemicals in treatment of white spot disease.