HAEMATOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF BROILER FINISHER FED GRADED LEVELS OF MAGGOT MEAL

Abstract

A 56-day study was carried out to determine the haematological and biochemical characteristics of one hundred and twenty (120) broilers finisher fed varying levels of maggot meal (MM). The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design (CRD) in which the birds were randomly grouped into four treatments and further replicated three times with ten birds per replicate. Four finisher broiler diets were compounded, incorporating (MM) at 0%, 50%, 75% and 100% respectively. The diets were designated T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively, T1 served as the control (with no MM). The birds were given feed and water ad-libtum and were subjected to similar sanitary and husbandry conditions throughout the experimental period. Data were collected for haematological and biochemical analysis. Statistics result revealed that only red blood cell (RBC), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), albumin, urea, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and creatinine showed significant (P<0.05) differences, while others showed non-significant (P>0.05) differences. Result indicates that maggot meal can completely replace fish meal as a protein source as the birds are physiologically stable.