Volume : 5, Issue : 4, April - 2016

A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF DISTILLERY EFFLUENT ON THE ESTUARINE CATFISH MYSTUS GULIO

V. Ramamurthy, M. K. Vadivazhagi

Abstract :

<p>&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;nbsp;Pollution may be defined as fouling of the environment. It is an undesirable change in the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of the land, air and water that may or will harmfully affect human life or that of desirable species. Distillery effluent affects the many physico-chemical characteristic of aquatic medium. The turbidity of water is increased by the dark colour of the distillery effluent. The distillery industry is one of the most polluting of industries, not only in terms of the volume of effluent generated, but also in terms of its characteristics as well. The physiological, biochemical and histological changes in Mystus gulio after exposure to sublethal concentrations of the distillery effluent have been investigated. The results of acute toxicity test showed that the LC50 was 20 ml/liter, means that this wastewater is highly toxic. The results of physiological, biochemical and histological changes in Mystus gulio showed that the fish were under considerable stress during exposure to sublethal doses of this effluent. Physiological response of fish revealed significant disturbances in respiratory system, metabolism and ionic osmoregulation. Biochemical changes of protein, lipid and carbohydrate content were recorded. Pathological changes attributed to dairy industry effluents were observed in the gills, liver and kidney&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;</p>