Effect of dietary supplementation of chromium on growth and biochemical parameters of Labeo rohita (Hamilton) fingerlings

A 60-day feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary chromium on growth, feed efficiency and biochemical parameters of Labeo rohita fingerlings. Four isonitogenous (crude protein 35%) and isocaloric (415 k cal 100 g-1) experimental feeds were prepared by supplementing different levels of dietary chromium picolinate viz., control (0.0 mg kg-1), T1 (0.4 mg kg-1), T2 (0.8 mg kg-1) and T3 (1.2 mg kg-1). Weight gain WG (%), specific growth rate (SGR), feed efficiency ratio (FER) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) and apparent net protein utilisation (ANPU %) were significantly improved (p<0.05) when chromium was supplemented at 0.8 mg kg-1 feed. The protein retention (PR %) value increased with the dose of chromium, showing the highest value in T2 group. Chromium supplementation significantly increased (p<0.05) liver glycogen in T1 and T2 groups but decrease was observed at high level of chromium supplementation in T3 group. Chromium supplementation significantly reduced (p<0.05) serum cholesterol and triglycerides in all the experimental groups compared to control showing the highest reduction in T2 group. The serum high density lipoproteins-cholesterol (HDL-C) was increased (p<0.05)in all experimental groups due to chromium supplementation and the highest blood HDL-C was observed in T2 group. However, no difference (p