Effects of domestic effluent utilisation on the blood characteristics of grower pullets

Abstract

Two hundred 10- weeks old golden Hubbard grower chickens were randomly assigned to four water treatments: tap water (TW), alum treated domestic sewage (ATDS), secondary treatment domestic sewage (STDS) and raw domestic sewage (RDS). Each treatment was replicated twice with 25 birds per replicate. The trial lasted for 9 weeks. The experimental waters were analysed to determine their quality, water consumption by the chickens in each treatment was measured to assess their acceptability and the effects of water treatments on hematological and serum biochemical constituents over time were evaluated. The sequence of water quality in decreasing order is TW, ATDS, STDS and RDS. The effect of the water treatments on water consumption of the chickens was not significant (p>0.05). The packed cell volune, haemoglobin, serum total protein, serum albumin, serum globulin, serum calcium and serum phosphorus of the birds were not significantly different (p>0.05) at each bleeding throughout the experiment. While the blood constituents evaluated all had values within the normal limits, the concentrations of calcium in the sera of the bird receiving AIDS were slightly lower at weeks 5 and 9. The chickens on any of the treatments suffered no apparent harm. The physiological constitution of the chickens at this stage of growth appears to be able to accommodate the differences in the chemical and physical compositions of the domestic sewage effluents without disrupting the animal health.