5.2 Conclusion and RecommendationsThe biochemical characteristics testscarried out revealed that 16 pathogens of the sampled fish (Clarias gariepinus) showing that thesaid fish contained a well load of pathogens which could be as a result of thehandling technique used in practice. The results of phytochemical screening of T. cacao parts especially the leaf andhusk extracts gave a promising potential use of this plant as a source ofantibacterial drug against fish pathogens and this gives the fish farmer anadvantage over costlier synthetic drugs in their aquacultural practices eventhough the sensitivities of these microbes to synthetic drugs was higher thanthat of the T. cacao part extracts. The results of the MIC of T. cacao parts extracts against the identified organisms showedthat the husk and the leaf extracts had the most inhibitory effects while theMBCs performed followed similar trend as the MIC results.
The bacteriostatic and bactericidalefficacy of the synthetic antibiotics on the 16 bacterial pathogens revealedthe potential efficacies of the synthetic drugs, Gentamycine, Streptomycin,Ciprofloxacine and Ofloxacine and T.cacao part extracts, leaf and husk as a remedy for diseases caused by ahost of pathogens identified in this study. The MICs and MBCs of leaf and huskextracts showed a promising efficacy than some synthetic drugs especiallyPenicillin and Cotrimoxazole if well purified. It is however recommended thatthreobromine, which is the major constituent of cocoa (especially the cocoabeans) should be further investigated in order to actually get the accuratecontent and its efficacy in the treatment of some disease of the Africanmudcatfish, C.
gariepinus andtherefore enhance profit maximization of the aquaculture industry.Furthermore,it is also recommended that further studies like the in vivo experimentation of this study should be carried out to testthese extracts on the life diseased fish.
