EFFECT OF PROBIOTIC SUPPLEMENTATION ON HAEMATOLOGICAL INDICES AND SERUM METABOLITES OF BROILER CHICKENS FED SHEA KERNAL CAKE MEAL BASED DIET

Abstract

A 49-day experiment was conducted with a total of one hundred and twenty (120) day old Arbor Acre broiler chicks to determine the effect of probiotic (Biovet-YC*) supplementation on the haematology and serum biochemistry of broilers fed graded levels of Shea kernel cake meal (SKCM). A completely randomized design was adopted and the birds were grouped into four (4) dietary treatments comprising of 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% inclusion levels of SKCM as T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. The treatments were replicated thrice with 10 birds each. Diet T, served as the control without SKCM and probiotic addition, while dietT2, T3, and T4, were supplemented with 0.5g/kg Biovet-YC®. Feed and water were given ad-libithum. Blood was collected into two different carefully labeled bottles with or without an anti-coagulant (EDTA) for haematological and serum biochemical evaluations respectively. The results showed that birds fed probiotic supplemented SKCM and control diets have similar values for packed cell volume, haemoglobin, red blood cells, mean corpuscular haemoglobin and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration whereas, white blood cell count showed significantly differences (p<0.05) among treatments as birds on 5 and 15% SKCM diets had lower values compared to birds on control and 10% SKCM diet. However, SKCM with probiotic supplementation had no effect on the serum metabolites of the broiler chickens. Therefore, the study showed that incorporation of SKCM with probiotic supplementation in diet of broiler chickens did not have any adverse health implications.