Effects of Turmeric Oil as a Dietary Supplements on the Hematology and Serum Biochemical Indices of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The objective of this current study was to examine the effects of turmeric oil as a dietary supplement on some haematological and serum biochemical indices of broiler chicken. A total of two hundred 1-day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308 strain) were randomly distributed to five treatments of 4 replicates consisting of 10 birds each in a completely randomized design. Birds in treatment 1 (T1) were fed basal diet + 0% turmeric oil (TOL), T2, T3, T4 and T5 were fed basal diet supplemented with TOL at 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. Basal diet was formulated to meet the nutritional requirements of birds according to NRC (1994). Clean feed and water were also provided ad libitum throughout the experiment which lasted for 56 days. Results obtained showed that all the haematological parameters (Pack cell volume, haemoglobin, red blood cell, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular heamoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, white blood cells and its differentials) were significantly (P˂0.05) different among the treatments. Serum biochemical parameters (Total protein, albumin, globulin, cholesterol, alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase) were influenced by the dietary supplementation of TOL (P˂0.05). Cholesterol level decreases as the dietary supplementation of TOL increases (P˂0.05). However, all values were within the normal physiological range for birds. It was concluded that TOL contains several bioactive chemicals which confers it the ability to perform multiple biological functions.