HAEMATOLOGICAL CHANGES IN BROILER FINISHER CHICKENS FED DIETS CONTAINING GRADED LEVELS OF BITTER LEAF (Vernonia amygdalina) MEAL

Abstract

A four -week study was conducted to evaluate the haematological responses of broiler finisher chickens fed graded levels of bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) meal. A total of 150-day-old Abor acre strain of broiler chicks were used in this study. The birds were randomly allocated to five dietary experimental treatments consisting of thirty birds each in a completely randomized design (CRD). Each treatment was further divided into three replicates of 10 birds each. The bitter leaf meal was included at 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 g/kg diets to represent treatments T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. At the end of the feeding trial, 5ml of blood samples from two birds per replicate were collected for haematological analysis. The results revealed significant (p<0.05) differences in all the parameters measured. The red blood cells count (RBC) and lymphocytes were significantly higher at T4 (3.15 ×106 /l and 83.44 %) and T5 (3.28 ×106 /l and 85%) levels respectively. The haemoglobin level also followed the same trend with observed increase in birds fed diets T4 and T5. The mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), MCHC, platelets and white blood cells count all tended to increase significantly (p<0.05) with increasing levels of bitter leaf meal in the diets, and the highest values obtained from birds fed diets T4 (30 g/kg) and T5 (30 g/kg) of feed. This study concluded that bitter leaf meal in diets of finisher broiler chickens favoured the production of most of their haematological parameters at 30 and 40 g/kg diet