الفهرس 
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Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of including cottonseed meal in carp diets, at three weight phases, on growth performance, whole body composition, and health aspects.
Experimental design
Four experiments were performed, three of which tested the feeding of cottonseed meal to carp in three different weight phases (about 10, 25, &50g) at three different levels (10%, 20%, &30%), and the effect of adding the iron salt, ferrous sulfate, in reducing gossypol toxicity. The experimental periods extended for 18, 6, & 8 weeks in the three experiments respectively. The fourth experiment is an assumed one in which the results of the three experiments are compared as related to the different aspects extrapolating the effect of fish weight on gossypol tolerance. In each of the three main experiments seven diets were mixed, the first was the control diet which was free of CSM and used as a control to which the other diets were compared. The rest of the seven diets were the diets containing CSM in the aforementioned three levels either used as processed and untreated or processed and treated by the ferrous salt at the rate of 3.4%.
The diets were fed to four groups of fish; the first group was fed the control diet. Of the other three groups each was divided into two subgroups A and B, A was fed on a diet containing untreated CSM and B fed on a diet containing treated meal. The CSM was at the levels 10, 20, & 30% for groups II, III, & IV in a respective order.
The performance of fish was evaluated by measuring its weight development and its extrapolated criteria, gain, relative growth rate; length and condition factor; and by measuring the amount of food consumed as a percentage of body weight and the efficiency by which this food and its protein are utilized expressed by feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio. At the end of each of the three experiments the general health criteria (blood parameters) and the gross body composition were tested. Clinical observations, mortalities, postmortem abnormalities, and pathological lesions were also recorded.