Aspects of the hematology and serum biochemical indices of finisher broilers fed <i>Jacaranda mimosifolia</i> leaf meal diets

Abstract

One hundred and eight (108) four weeks old Anak broilers were used for a 35 day experiment to assess the hematological and serum biochemical characteristics of finisher broilers fed Jacaranda mimosifolia leaf meal at inclusion rates of 0% T₁ (control) , 2.50% T₂, 5.0% T₃, and 7.5% T₄. Hemoglobin concentration of treatment 1 (control) was significantly (p<0.05) lower than that of other treatment groups, while T 4 had the highest value, followed by T₃, T₂ in other Hematological indices such as packed cell volume (PCV), Red blood cell count (RBC), white blood cell count (WBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV)< mean corpuscular Hemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular concentration (MCHC) were all significantly higher (p<0.05) in treatment 4 (7.5%) than other treatment groups followed by treatments 3 and 2 (5% and 2.5%) which were statistically similar, while treatment 1 (control) was lowest. The clothing time of T ₂ was significantly higher than T ₁, T ₃ and T ₄.Serum cholesterol of T ₁ was significantly (p<0.05) lower than those of others. The creatinine was significantly higher in T ₄ (p<0.05) than the other treatment groups. Serum urea, Total protein and Albumin were significantly higher in treatment 4 (P<0.05) and the concentration decreased with level of the leaf meals inclusion. There was no significant difference in all the treatment groups for serum glucose concentration, while Na and K levels remained significantly (P> 0.05) uniform in all the treatment groups. The Hematological and serum biochemical indices of the broilers fed Jacaranda leaf meal were within normal range and tended to improve with increasing inclusion rate of the leaf meal. There is need to investigate the biological bases of this improvement in various blood indices.

Animal Production Research Advances Vol. 2(2) 2006: 113-117