Zinc and Cadmium Induced Changes in the Proteolytic and Amylolytic Enzyme Activity in Indian Major Carps

Heavy metal contamination usually causes depletion in food utilization in fish and such disturbance may result in reduced fish metabolic rate and hence causing reduction in their growth. Fishesare widely used to evaluate the health of aquaticecosystems because pollutants build up in the foodchain and are responsible for adverse effects and deathin the aquatic systems.Biochemical parameters assessed in fish may be a useful tool by providing quantitative measurement of metal impact as well as valuable information of ecological relevance on the effects of metals (Oner et al., 2009). Due to the bioaccumulative and non-biodegradable properties, heavy metals constitute a core group of aquatic pollutants. Over the last few decades, there has been a particular interest in determining the levels of heavy metals in the marine and fresh water canals and attention was drawn to the measurement of their contamination levels in public food supplies, particularly in fish. Today, the heavy metals are termed as ‘devils in disguise’ but the economic reasons impel us to keep them using. Heavy metals are one of the major components of industrial effluents, which have attained an alarming status as water pollutants over the last few decades.