The study was conducted to examine the potential of pituitary glands of pig and goat for the induced spawning of the African catfish by evaluating the latency period, fecundity, fertilization rate, and hatching rate. Further, the study also aimed to determine the acceptable dosage to be utilized on the induced spawning of African catfish. The treatments evaluated were: Treatment 1 (control: 4mg / kg, catfish pituitary gland), Treatment 2 (4mg / kg, pig pituitary gland), Treatment 3 (200mg / kg, pig pituitary gland), Treatment 4 (4mg / kg, goat pituitary gland) and Treatment 5 (200mg / kg, pig pituitary gland).
The pig and goat pituitary gland extracts have successfully induced the spawning activity of African catfish. All female breeders of experimental treatments attained ovulation within 12 hours which is under the prescribed latency period. Treatments with 4mg/kg of pig and goat pituitary glands gained the highest number of egg spawned followed by the treatment with 200mg/kg of pig pituitary gland, then the treatment control with 4mg/kg of catfish pituitary gland and lastly, the treatment with 200mg/kg of goat pituitary gland. For the fertilization rate, control treatment attained the highest value however, the pituitary extract from pig and goat with 4mg/kg dosage obtained a value that was comparable to the control treatment. In terms of hatching rate, treatments that utilized pituitary extract from goat both 4mg/kg and 200mg/kg dosages gave the highest result.
The study concluded that pituitary glands of pig and goat can provide positive results in terms of latency period, fecundity, fertilization and hatching rate and can be used as other source of pituitary gland on the induced spawning of African catfish. The study also concluded that the dosage of 4mg/kg of both pig and goat pituitary glands attained better result and the recommended dosage to be used on the induced spawning African catfish.