EFFICACY OF TRADITIONAL HERBS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TOANTIBIOTICS USED IN AQUACULTURE

¹Akinyemi, A.A. and ²Ajagbe, S.O.

¹Aquaculture and Fisheries Management Department, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

²Agricultural Technology Department, Federal College of Forestry, FRIN, Ibadan, Nigeria.

E-mail: adeoluakinyemi@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Diseases in aquaculture are hardly avoided like every other branch of agriculture. Therefore, many attempts have been made toward finding solution to this problem especially bacterial disease in aquaculture. The use of antibiotics is common to treat bacterial diseases with satisfactory results, until recent time when it was discovered that the continuous use of antimicrobial agents in aquaculture has resulted in more resistant bacterial strains. This problem had shifted the focus of researchers and farmers to the use of herbs to treat and control bacterial diseases in aquaculture. The herbs are cheap, available in large quantity around us and they pose no danger to the fish, the environment and the consumers. This work therefore, identified some useful herbs that have antibacterial activities and classified them into exotic and indigenous for easy use of local fish farmers in Nigeria.