| Summary: | Influence of vitamins C and E supplementation on flesh yields and proximate compositions of Clarias gariepinus fed diets contaminated with increasing doses of fumonisin B1 (FB1), an environmental mycotoxin produced by Fusarium verticillioides, was evaluated. A total of 780 juvenile fish were randomly stocked in completely randomized design into 13 groups. Fusarium verticillioides inoculated diets containing FB1 were used to formulate 12 diets containing approximately 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 mg FB1/kg feed constituting diets 2, 3, and 4, respectively and nine other diets constituting diets 5–13 with the same varied dietary FB1 concentrations but supplemented with 0.6 g of vitamin C or E or vitamins C and E. The flesh and waste yields for the fish ranged from 54.35 ± 0.89 to 60.40 ± 3.40 and 32.60 ± 8.20 to 40.15 ± 1.11 respectively and were significantly influenced (P > 0.05) by the levels of FB1 contamination. The results of the proximate composition of crude protein (68.13 ± 0.32) and fat (12.74 ± 0.34) of fish fed diet 3 and control, respectively were significantly different (P < 0.05) from other treatments. Also, the supplementation of vitamins C and E to FB1-contaminated diets revealed a significantly higher values in diets 5,9,10,11,12,13 (68.38 ± 0.25, 68.57 ± 0.45, 68.56 ± 0.18, 68.54 ± 0.21, 68.57 ± 0.25, 68.66 ± 0.17) respectively compared with the control diets. The proximate composition of C. gariepinus fed diets contaminated with increasing doses of FB1 supplemented with vitamins C and E supplementation revealed that there was significant difference (P < 0.05) between the control diet and other diets for the crude protein. The use of vitamins C and E in this study showed the ameliorative potential of the antioxidants on the effect of FB1 on the nutritive qualities of the fish.
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