Effects of Different Levels of Meal and Alcoholic Extract of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) on Growth Performance, Nutrition, Carcass Biochemical and Some Serum Biochemical Parameters in Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio)

This research was conducted to evaluate alteration of growth performance, nutrition, carcass and some serum biochemical parameters of common carp fed the diets supplemented by different levels of meal and alcoholic extract of alfalfa (Medicago sativa). In this research, 300 fish (mean weight: 20.4 ± 0.19 g and mean length: 11.78 ± 0.64 cm) were fed by nine nutritional diets for 8 weeks. Nutritional treatments were four treatment groups which had increasing levels of alfalfa meal (3, 6, 9 and 12 percent), four treatment groups with increasing levels of alfalfa extract (1, 2, 3 and 4 percent) and one control group (without any meal or extract). Based on the results, adding 9 percent of alfalfa meal and 4 percent alcoholic extract to the diets of examined fish, increased significantly weight gain (WG), body weight gain percent (BWG%), daily growth ratio (DGR), specific growth ratio (SGR), condition factor (CF), hepato somatic index (HIS), and viscero somatic index (VSI), feed efficiency ratio (FER), protein efficiency ratio (PER), carcass protein and lipid and blood serum levels of total protein (TP), globulin (GLUB), glucose (GLUC) and phosphorus (PHOS) in comparison with the control group (P0.05). Based on the results and calculation of economical index, the most economic and the best treatment was 4% of alcoholic extract and 9 % of alfalfa meal for diets of Cyprinus carpio.