Effects of short-term starvation and refeeding on some physiological parameters in Mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (Gunther, 1874) fingerlings

Najafi, Asieh; Salati, Amir Parviz; Yavari, Vahid; Asadi, Farzad

Effects of short-term starvation and refeeding on some physiological parameters in Mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (Gunther, 1874) fingerlings

Authors

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of short-term starvation and Re-feeding on
some physiological indices of Mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (Günther, 1874) fingerlings.
Three experimental groups (each in 3 replicate) including 4, 8 and 16-days of starvation
were used in this study. End of starvation period and the beginning of re-feeding in all
treatments were concurrently occurred. Blood samples were collected from 15 fish in
each treatment (5 fish from each replicate) at the initial and the end of starvation and
also end of re-feeding periods, from the caudal vasculature vein using heparinized
syringes after anesthetization with an aqueous solution of 2-phenoxy-ethanol (%2).
Results showed that the number of red blood cells (RBCs), Hemoglobin concentration
(Hb) and Hematocrit (Ht) was significantly lower in 16-days starvation group
compared to basal values (P0.05),
while their number increased significantly after re-feeding period (P0.05). These
findings showed that fasting up to 16 days and re-feeding could not affect physiological
responses in M. sharpeyi.

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