Morphometric Organ Weight and Histopathological Studies of Broiler Chickens Fed Diet containing Graded Level of Pro-Vitamin-A Cassava (Manihot esculenta) Leaf Meal as Replacement for Groundnut Cake
Abstract
The study was conducted to investigate the morphometric organ weight and histopathology of broiler chickens fed diet containing Pro-vitamin-A Cassava Leaf Meal (PVACLM) as a replacement for groundnut cake (GNC) protein. A total of 120-day old Ross-308 broiler chicks were randomly allotted into 4 treatment groups of 30 birds per group, each group was further divided into 3 replicates of 10 chicks per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The group were tagged as treatment 1(T1), treatment 2(T2), treatment 3(T3) and treatment 4(T4) at the ratio of 0%, 5%, 10% and 15%. PVACLM T1 had no PVACLM and served as the control. The results of the organ weight of broiler chickens showed that the heart, kidney, bile and spleen differed significantly (p>0.05) among the treatment groups. T4 had the highest value (0.7567 g) for the heart, kidney (1.0367 g), bile (0.2300g), and spleen (0.2300g). The result of 0% inclusion of Pro Vitamin A-Cassava leaf meal on broiler chickens showed normal hepatic histo-architecture, while 5% and 10% inclusion of Pro Vitamin A-Cassava leaf meal showed sections of the liver with multifocal areas of hepatocellular necrosis with marked infiltration of inflammatory leukocytes (Plate 1-4). The result of 15% inclusion of Pro Vitamin A-Cassava leaf meal on broiler chickens showed mild periportal infiltration of inflammatory leukocytes Therefore for efficient productivity and reduction in cost of production, 15% inclusion of graded PVACLM is recommended.
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