HAEMATOLOGICAL INDICES OF BROILER CHICKEN FED VARYING LEVELS OF ALOE-VERA GEL IN WATER

Abstract

The study was conducted at the Poultry Unit of the Teaching and Research Farms of Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora, Nigeria.A total number of 96 day old unsexed broiler chicks were purchased from a reputable farm at Ibadan for the experiment. At 8 days of age, birds were weighed and randomly allotted into 4 feeding treatments of 3 replicates consisting of 8 birds in a completely randomized design (CRD).T1 control, T2 (30 ml of AVGE + 1 litre of water), T3 (60 ml of AVGE + 1 litre of water), T4 (90 ml of AVGE + 1 litre of water).The experiment lasted for 49 days. The results obtained show that aloe vera gel extract (AVGE) supplementation in water significantly (p<0.05) affected Packed cell volume (PCV) (%), haemoglobin (Hb) (g/dL), red blood cells (RBC) (x109/dl), heterophil, lymphocyte, monocyte eosinophil as well as basophil. White blood cells (WBC) (x103/dl) was however similar (p>0.05) across the treatment group. PCV was observed to be highest at T3 (24.83) while T1 (24.00), T2 (24.00) and T4 (24.17) show no difference in the means obtained. Similarly, RBC was observed to be highest at T3 (2.64) and lowest at T4 (2.39) while T1 and T2 had comparable significant means of 2.49 and 2.52 respectively. Hb was also observed to be highest at T3 (9.14) while T1 (8.79), T2 (8.79) and T4 (8.62) had comparable mean value across the treatment. Heterophil was however highest at the control T1 (42.00) while there were no differences in the means obtained in T2 (37.33), T3 (38.33) and T4 (40.67). WBC also had ranged values between 10.55 – 11.47 (T3 – T2) across the treatment groups. It can be concluded from the study that the groups treated with Aloe vera gel extract showed better significant haematological properties when compared to the control groups. It is thus recommended that farmers can adopt the use of 60 ml of aloe vera gel extract in oral supplementation as an alternative to commercial antibiotics