Efficacy of ginger (Zingiber officinale) supplemented diet on growth, proximate composition and haematological parameters of common carp, Cyprinus carpio fingerlings

Arshad, M. U., Pandey, A., Holeyappa, S.A. and Mandal, A. 2022. Efficacy of ginger (Zingiber officinale) supplemented diet on growth, proximate composition and haematological parameters of common carp, Cyprinus carpio fingerlings. Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology, 23: 143–150.

The present experiment was conducted to study the effect of dietary supplementation of ginger on growth, proximate composition and haematological parameters of Cyprinus carpio. The experiment was conducted in fibreglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) tanks (1.5x1.0x0.75 m), consisted of 5 treatments (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5) with 3 replicates each. Basal diet was prepared using rice bran, mustard meal, vitamin and mineral mixture and salt (49, 49, 1.5 and 0.5%, respectively). Ginger powder (GP) was incorporated into basal diets at different levels @ 0 (T1), 0.5% (T2), 1.0% (T3), 1.5% (T4) and 2.0% (T5). At the end of the experiment, weight gain (%), specific growth rate and condition factor (K-value) increased significantly (P≤0.05) in the ginger supplemented groups and recorded best in T5 (158.58%, 0.37 and 1.64, respectively). The feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio were also recorded significantly (P≤0.05) better in ginger supplemented diets but there was no significant difference in the survival rate among the treatments. Significant (P≤0.05) increase in the flesh protein content and lipid content was recorded. Hb, TEC, TLC, PCV/Ht, MCH and MCHC increased significantly in all the ginger supplemented diet with maximum in T5, whereas, MCV decreased significantly in T5 (130.70 im³). Ginger powder can be included (@2% of feed) in the diet of common carp under semi-intensive culture system to achieve better growth performance and feed utilization.