EFFECT OF HANDLING AND TRANSPORTATION ON HAEMATOLOGY OF AFRICAN CATFISH (Clarias gariepinus)

The expansion of fish farming has made farmers more concerned about losses in production. Handling of fishes in the field or in the laboratory is frequently characterized by increased susceptibility to disease thought to be mediated by immunologic suppression. In order to ascertain if such immunologic suppression occurs after stress, we conducted a laboratory study for the induction of acute handling (netting for 30 minutes and 1 hour) and transport stress (crowding for 30 minutes and 1 hour) that could reproducibly Affect haematological changes in African catfish, Clarias gariepinus, Burchell 1822 no significant differences was observed (p