Vom Journal of Veterinary Science Vol. 11, 2016: 13 – 19 13 HAEMATOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES ON THE BLOOD OF Clarias gariepinus FINGERLINGS FED COOKED Jatropha curcas SEED MEALS Wasiu Adeyemi JIMOH 1* , Ademola Zaid ADEROLU 3 , Mutiu Olakunle OLADELE-BUKOLA 2 , Francis Yinka OKEMAKIN 5 and Somrat Adeola ABDULSALAMI 4 1 Department of Fisheries Technology, Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, PMB 5029, Ibadan 2 Department of Livestock Improvement Programme, IAR&T, Moor Plantation, Ibadan 3 Department of Marine Science, University of Lagos 4 Fisheries and Aquaculture Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State 5 Department of Biology. The Polytechnic, Ibadan *Correspondence: jawabus@gmail.com; +234806 228 7099 Summary The effects of replacing soybean meal with Jatropha curcas seed meal on haematology and biochemistry of the blood of African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) were evaluated. Two hundred and twenty five (225) juveniles of Clarias gariepinus were acclimatized for a week, weighed and allotted into five dietary treatments; DT1, DT2, DT3, DT4 and DT5 containing 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% Jatropha curcas replacement levels with soybean meal respectively. The diets were isonitrogenous and isolipidic. Each treatment was replicated three times with 15 fish per replicate. Fish were fed 5% body weight on two equal proportions per day. The results from the study indicated that the haematological and biochemical parameters of Clarias gariepinus exposed to different dietary treatments in this study was not significantly different between the control diet and test diet D2 (25% replacement level) except for WBC. Generally, there was a lack of trend in the haematological parameters in the blood of Clarias gariepinus exposed to different dietary treatments. However, the values of some haematological parameters recorded in this experiment were within the range of normal haematology of a healthy fish. Keywords: Jatropha curcas, feed ingredients, Clarias gariepinus, blood biochemistry Introduction Haematological and serum biochemical parameters are important tools that can be used as indicators of monitoring physiological and pathological changes in fish (1). Blood analysis provides reliable information on metabolic disorders in farmed animals (2). Haematological indices have been used in assessment of suitability of feed and feed mixtures as well as disease diagnosis (3; 4; 5). The nutritional state of fish could change the blood values (6). Haematological parameters have proven to be veritable tools in evaluating the health status of fish with respect to dietary manipulations (7). Investigating possible nutritional disease that may result from feeding lesser known feed ingredient to fish is a reasonable attempt to forestall factors that could negatively affect