Oxidative stress and biochemical responses in the tissues of African catfish Clarias gariepinus juvenile following exposure to primextra herbicide

Abstract

Primextra is a commercial herbicide formulation generally used in agriculture for weed control. The present study was designed to investigate the oxidative stress biomarkers and biochemical responses in the tissues of Clarias gariepinus juvenile exposed to primextra. Fish were exposed to 0.24 and 0.47 mgL⁻¹ corresponding to 1/20 and 1/10th of 96 h LC₅₀ of the herbicide. The liver and muscle tissues were sampled on day 1, 5, 10 and 15 and results showed concentration and time dependent significant increase (p < 0.05) in the values of lipid peroxidation, glutathione peroxidase, catalase and alkaline phosphatase in both tissues. A marked significant increase (p < 0.05) was observed in the values of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and glucose in the liver while a mixed trend in their values were observed in the muscle. The values of superoxide dismutase and protein in both tissues were comparable to the control except on day 15 in the liver where the values significantly declined. The condition factor was not directly affected but values of hepatosomatic index were significantly reduced. The present findings revealed that primextra induced toxic stress even at sublethal concentrations resulting in alterations of the studied parameters which were more evident in the fish liver than in the muscle tissue.

• Biochemical alterations
• Clarias gariepinus
• oxidative stress biomarkers
• primextra

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the University authority and the Head of Department Zoology and Environmental Biology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria for the support and materials provided for the project.

Declaration of interest

None declared.