effect of dietary supplementation with ginger (zingiber officinale) extract on growth, biochemical and hemato-immunological parameters in juvenile beluga (huso huso)

the study was performed to examine the efficacy of ginger (zingiber officinale) extract on growth performance, biochemical and hemato-immunological parameters in juvenile beluga (huso huso). fish were divided into 4 groups before fed diet for 8 weeks with 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% ginger extract and with unsupplemented commercial diet as the control. results showed that there was a significant different in weight gain in fish fed ginger extract diet compared to the control (p<0.05). there were no significant differences in condition factor, feed conversion ratios, specific growth rate and survival between juveniles fed control and ginger extract supplementation (p>0.05). in addition, there were no significant differences of rbc, wbc counts, hct, monocyte, lymphocyte, neutrophil, eosinophil, glucose, tpp, triglyceride, lipid and globulin levels between the treatment groups (p>0.05). furthermore, alternative complement activity (ach50), serum total immunoglobulin (ig) and lysozyme activity were significantly increased in 1.5% ginger fed fish (p<0.05); however, it did not change the sod activity, significantly (p>0.05). therefore, the results suggest that by using 1.5% this extract there will be an improvement in hemato-biochemical parameters and immune function of juvenile beluga.