DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2022.v10i10.001

Pages: 234-256

The present study was intended to determine the toxic effect of Alkyl benzene sulfonate (ABS) on Oreochromis mosambicus. Probit analysis was employed to determine the 96h LC50 of surfactants for O. mossambicus. Moreover, the survivability of surfactant exposed was calibrated and validated using general threshold survival models (GUTS) in terms of required data sets and fit performance. Subsequently, fish were assigned to experimental groups exposed to 10% and 20% of 96h LC50 of surfactants for the period of 45 d to assess the changes in growth, hematological, plasma biochemical, and enzymological as well as stress enzyme parameters in gills and liver by employing standard protocol. The 24h, 48h, 72h and 96h LC 50 values of ABS to O. mossambicus are 0.55mg/l, 0.28 mg/l, 0.09 mg/l and 0.06 mg/l respectively. Moreover, the GUTS- IT model better projected the survivability in O. mossambicus for ABS exposure. During sublethal exposure, a consequential reduction in specific growth rate (SGR), RBC, hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Ht) value, plasma protein, albumin, and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities in gills and liver, as well as significant induction in gastrosomatic index (GSI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), plasma glucose, creatinine, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels and catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA) in gills and liver were observed in exposed fish. Moreover, in both gills and the liver, GST and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) exhibited a significant initial increase followed by a subsequent decrease in exposed fish. The effects of ABS on fish were identified using the correlation matrix, integrated biomarker response (IBR) and biomarker response index (BRI). These findings show that exposure to surfactant affects multiple biomarkers in O. mossambicus.