EFFECT OF LITTER DEPTHS ON HAEMATOLOGICAL PROFILE OF ROSS-308 GROWER BROILER CHICKENS IN MAKURDI, SUB-HUMID SAVANNA

Abstract

The environment of the animal certainly has definite effect on its physiology. The assessment of these effects requires the measure of haematological indices. Hence this experiment was designed to studythe effect of wood shaving depths on some haematological indices of Ross-308 grower broilerchickens. The four weeks old, one hundred and twenty (120) grower broiler chickens used for thisstudy were randomly allotted by weight to four treatments of three replicates each, comprising of ten birds per replicate. The experiment was set in a completely randomized design. Feed and water were administered ad-lib. At the end of the experimental period of four weeks, three birds were selected from treatments; one per replicate and sacrificed. Blood was collected from the severed jugular; 3mls each into EDTA and EDTA free bottles for each bird. Samples in the EDTA bottles were used to evaluate PCV, Hb, RBC, WBC, and the erythrocytic indices; MCV, MCH and MCHC were calculated. Serum samples were aspirated from the EDTA free bottles for the analysis of total protein, albumin, glucose, creatinine, total cholesterol and triglyceride. The result of the study showed that the means of Hb, MCHC, ALT, total cholesterol and triglyceride vary significantly (p<0.05) among the treatments while means of all other indices were not significantly (p>0.05) different. It was observed in this study that Hb, MCHC and triglyceride concentration were influenced by litter depth.