STUDY ON HAEMATOLOGICAL AND SERUM BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF HELMETED GUINEA FOWL (NUMIDA MELEAGRIS PALLAS) IN A SEMIARID ENVIRONMENT
Keywords:
Haematological, Blood chemistry, Parameters, Guinea fowl, StrainAbstract
The study was conducted to establish the effect of strain and sex effect on their haematology and serum biochemistry of helmeted Guinea fowl. Three strains (Pearl, Lavender and Black) were used for the study. Two hundred and seventy birds were used for the study. Ten (10) healthy birds from each strain of the birds were randomly selected for haematological and serum biochemical analysis. 3ml of blood samples were collected from the prominent wing vein using a sterile syringe early in the morning. The samples were inserted in to two bottles: Ethylene Di-amine Tetra Acetic acid (EDTA) treated bottles for haematological assay and plane bottle for serum biochemistry analysis. The blood samples were analysed for haematology using clinical methods. The lymphocytes and monocytes were read off from a microscope of x100 objective in femtolitres (FL). Total serum protein was determined by Goldberg refractometer method for each blood sample. The result indicated that there were no significant (P>0.05) differences found across the strains and sex in all the measured parameters. However, Pearl Guinea fowl was found to have higher value (94.43) for WBC than Black and Lavender. For the lymphocyte and monocyte parameters, Lavender bird has the higher values of (68.85) and (21.78) respectively. For the sex, no significant (P>0.05) difference was observed across the haematological and serum biochemical parameters. But female has higher value for serum biochemistry. It was concluded that the birds are statistically the same for blood analysis. However, it is recommended to carry out genetic characterization using molecular study.