Investigation Of The Infestation Of Dermestes Maculatus On Clarias Gariepinus At different intervals

Eating dried fish is one prevalent dietary habit for local Nigerians due to the requisite for nutritional quality, infested or not. The aim of this study is to investigate the infestation of smoked ready-to-eat dried Clarias gariepinus obtained from Oja-Oba market in Ikare, Ondo State, Nigeria and fresh catfishes processed in the laboratory by Dermestes maculatus at different intervals. A total of twenty catfish was obtained for the study. The twenty catfish were divided into 2 groups of ten catfish each as follows; group 1-smoked ready-to-eat and group 2-fresh catfish processed in the laboratory. The dried catfish were macerated and weighed in each group to obtain a weight of 500g. The macerated catfish in each group were infested with Dermestes maculatus larva in 3 replicates per group. The nutritional composition and moisture contents were determined every two weeks using proximal analysis in an experiment that lasted 56 days. Data were subjected to two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). P ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. The result revealed that carbohydrate content, crude protein, fat content, ash content, mineral composition and vitamin c in oven-dried fishes exposed to Dermestes maculatus were significantly different (P ≤ 0.05) from those obtained from the local market as days progressed from 0 – 56 days. Result also showed that moisture content (%) reduced from 0 – 56 days (146.32±9.22c to 132.09±2.58a and 146.32±9.22b -142.55±2.95c) for both smoked catfishes obtained from the local market and laboratory oven-dried catfishes respectively. This implies that the high moisture content influenced the nutritional composition of the laboratory processed catfishes compared to those obtained from the local market. Therefore, protecting smoked ready-to-eat dried catfishes from local market by Dermestes maculatus infestations are important to guide the nutritional quality.