Cow Urine Distillate as an Ecosafe and Economical Feed Additive for Enhancing Growth, Food Utilization and Survival Rate in Rohu, Labeo rohita (Hamilton)

Background and Objective: Freshwater aquaculture has made notable strides in recent years and now contributes to a third of the total fish production in India. Carp form the mainstay of Indian freshwater aquaculture. The present study assessed the efficacy of different breeds of cow urine distillate (CUD) in the diet of Labeo rohita fingerlings on growth, food utilization, nutritive value and survival rate parameters. Materials and Methods: Twelve fingerlings (9.30.2 g) were randomly distributed in four experimental groups. The experiment was conducted in glass aquaria tanks 20 L capacity each and temperature range was 28.5-30.0EC. Labeo rohita fed with Gir C (T 1 ), Haryana breed CUD diet (T 2 ), Holstein Friesian cross breed CUD diet (T 3 ) and Control diet without CUD (C). Fish were fed at 2% of wet body weight twice a day at 09.00 and 16.00 h. Average body weight gain, average body length gain, growth rate, specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio, survival rate and biochemical analysis were monitored in the study period of 30 days. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at significance of (p<0.05). Results: At the end of the experiment, maximum growth (0.13 mg/fish), growth rate (0.0041 mg/day), percentage increase in body weight (14.07%), average daily growth (0.0044 mg/day) feeding rate (0.0034 mg/day) were occurred in the fish fed with T 1 diet significantly (p<0.05) when compared to other two experimental diets and control diet. A maximum survival rate of 95% was observed in T 1 , high muscle protein (202.35 mg gG 1 ), liver (184.9 mg gG 1 ) and muscle carbohydrate (145.32 mg gG 1 ), liver (165.31 mg gG 1 ) were also observed in T 1 . Conclusion: Hence, the present study suggested Gir CUD could be a good feed additive for higher growth and feeding efficiency, survival and nutrient value in aquaculture.