HAEMATOLOGICAL AND SERUM BIOCHEMICAL INDICES OF BROILER CHICKENS FED DIETARY LEVELS OF SWEET POTATO PEEL MEAL

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the blood haematology and serum biochemical indices of broiler chicken fed graded levels of potato peel meal (SPPM) as replacement for maize. The treatment consisted of five diets formulated using SPPM to replace maize at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% in diets 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively in both starter (23%CP) and finisher (20%CP) phases. Two hundred and twenty five one week old broiler chicks were allotted to the five diets in four replicates of fifteen chick each in a completely randomized design (CRD). The feeding trial lasted for six weeks with feed and water given ad libtum. At the end of week six, blood samples were collected from three birds in each replicate and subjected to laboratory analysis for both haematology and serum biochemistry. Results obtained indicated that, all the serum biochemical indices were not statistically (P>0.05) affected by the dietary treatment except percentage Haematocrit (HCT) which was affected significantly (P<0.05) by the diets with values ranging from 21.07-28.67%. Similarly, all the blood haematology parameters were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by the substitution levels of SPPM to maize. Both the serum biochemistry and haematology were within normal values which indicated that the birds were healthy and their meats were safe for consumption. It was concluded that feeding broiler birds with SPPM and maize based diets has no deleterious effects on their haematology and serum biochemistry indices as well as their general health. Therefore, substituting conventional maize with sweet potato peel meal is recommended and further studies on other poultry species are encouraged