HAEMATOLOGY AND SERUM CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILERS FED DIETS CONTAINING GRADED LEVELS OF GINGER (ZINGIBER OFFICINALE) RHIZOME MEAL AS ADDICTIVE

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate the haematology and serum characteristics of broiler chicken fed diets containing Ginger (Zingibe officinale) Rhizome meal as addictive. A total of one hundred and fifty (150) day old chicks (Ross) were purchased from reputable source at Ibadan. The birds were divided into 5 Diet groups after a stabilization period of 1 week. There were a total of 5 treatment each replicated into 3 in a complete randomized design experiment that lasted for 49 days. Diet 1 (0.0% ginger) was the control, Diet 2 (0.10% ginger), Diet 3 (0.15% ginger), Diet 4 (0.20% ginger), and Diet 5 (0.25% ginger).Haematological indices had significant (p<0.05) differences in all the parameters measured among the treatment groups such as HB, PCV, RBC, TWBC, MCV, MCH, and MCHC, however birds fed diet 5 had the best values as HB (12.03), PCV (34.83), RBC (3.96), TWBC (23.80), MCV (95.23), MCH (30.40), and MCHC (34.56). For serum biochemistry, significant (p<0.05) differences were only observed in globulin, glucose and cholesterol, however, in all the values obtained birds fed diet 5 had the highest values such as; total protein (4.20), albumin (2.16), globulin (2.05), glucose (148.67), cholesterol (82.14), urea (10.19) and creatinine (0.79). Therefore diet 5 containing 0.25 ginger is chosen as the best performed among others and is therefore recommended