Dietary ginger improve growth performance, blood parameters, antioxidant capacity and gene expression in Cyprinus carpio

The present study evaluates the effect of dietary ginger (Zingiber officinale) on growth performance, haematological parameters, antioxidant status of common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Fish with initial weight of 14±1.95 g were allocated into twelve tanks at density of 18 fish per tank. Fish were fed four experimental diets containing 0 (as control diet), 0.5, 2 and 5% ginger powder for 56 days. After 56 days of culture, fish fed with 2 and 5% ginger diets showed significant increase in final weight, weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (p<0.05) compared to the control diet. Significant higher number of leucocytes (WBC), erythrocytes (RBC), haematocrit, lymphocyte, monocyte and neutrophil were found in the fish fed with 2 and 5% ginger diets compared to the control diet. Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) enzyme activities and Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were significantly higher in the groups fed 2 and 5% ginger diets (p<0.05). SOD, CAT and GPX mRNA expression levels of fish fed with 2 and 5% ginger diets were significantly down-regulated compared to the control diet (p<0.05). The results suggested that dietary ginger can improve the growth performance, health status and antioxidant capacity of common carp.