Genotoxic and Histopathological Effects of Water Pollution on Clarias gariepinus Fish at Fayoum Governorate, Egypt

Document pages: 21 pages

Abstract: Increasing land reclamation in El-Fayoum governorate has led to increasethe amount of drainage water that discharged without prior treatments to twomain drains, El-Wadi and El-Bats drainages loaded by salts and heavy metals.So, the present investigation aims to evaluate quality of water samplescollected from a branch of the river Nile (El-Lahon canal) and the main drains(El-Bats and El-Wadi) at Fayoum governorate on some biomarkers of the Nilecatfish; Clarias gariepinus inhabiting the studied degradable aquatichabitats. Water and nighty fish samples colleted from the different studiedsites of collection by the help of fishermen for physicochemical analyes ofwater and fish biochemical analyses and histopathological alteration. Resultsrevealed highly significant differences at P ≤ 0.01 with the highest waterammonia, nitrite, heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd) and lowest dissolved oxygencontent accompanied by metals bioaccumulation in vital organs of fish collectedfrom the main drains (El-Bats and El-Wadi) in comparision with that collectedfrom the studied branch of the river Nile. Higher bioaccumulation of thestudied heavy metals in gills, liver, kidney and muscles of Clariasgariepinus collected from the main drains significant increase in serumglucose, liver and kidney functions, disturbance in protein profile of fishcollected from the studied main drains than that of fish collected from theriver Nile branch, El-Lahon that showed more or less normal values. Moreover,histopathological alterations in gills, liver, kidneys and clear DNA strandbreaks in fish liver cells increased statistically in Clarias gariepinus collectedfrom El-Fayoumdrainage canals. Generally, the results highlights on the importance of takingaction through the responsible authorities towards quality of the drainage water that fed fish farms by law thatcould play a role as a main source of protein for human beings.