HAEMATOLOGY AND SERUM BIOCHEMICAL INDICES OF GRASSCUTTERS FED WITH SUGARCANE PEEL MEAL PARTIALLY REPLACED WITH CASSAVA PEEL MEAL

Abstract

Blood study on grasscutters was carried out when they were fed sugarcane peel partially replaced with cassava peel meal. Twenty grasscutters with average initial weight 556g were used. Four grasscutters per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design. Five diets were formulated to contain 100, 75, 50, 25 and 0.0% of sugarcane meal and 0.0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of cassava peel meal. Proximate analysis on the test ingredients and experimental diets were carried out. The results showed that, Haematocrit ranged from 32.33-36.68%, Haemoglobin values that ranged from 11.17-12.52g/L, lymphocytes ranged from 39.38-54% and neutrophils 46.03-61.01 % were significantly (P<0.05) affected. White blood cell (5.83-6.38 x106/L), Red blood cell ranged (4.31-4.89 x109 /L) and erythrocyte indices namely; MCV, MCH and MCHC revealed no significant (p>0.05) differences. The results of serum biochemical variables showed that, the total protein ranged from 66.32-68.00gd/l, albumin 45.26-47.26gd/L, Globulin 21.32-22.1%, urea 3.67-5.34mmol/L, cholesterol 3.62-5.73 mg/dL and Glutamic Pyruvic Transaminase with values 9.21-10.80 µl did not differ (P>0.05) while Glutamic Oxaloacetic Transaminase (41.16-57.10µl/L), glucose 58.12-86.72mg/dL and creatinine 1.00-1.11mg/dL had significant (P<0.05) differences. It was observed that, none of the haematological and serum biochemistry values evaluated showed any threat to the health of the grasscutters because they had normal values, an indication of nutritional adequacy and safety level of the different feeding trials. Based on these observations, it was therefore concluded that, replacing sugarcane peel with cassava peel feed can be used to feed grasscutters without any adverse effect on their health or
physiological activities.