Haematological and serological response of broiler chickens to varying levels of direct fed microbes as feed additive

Abstract

Several efforts are being made to find the possibilities of utilizing Direct fed microbes (DFM) that has a potential to replace antibiotics as a result of its ability to prevent internal colonization of enteropathogenic enzymes, stimulate intestinal immunity of broiler chickens and reduce stress in animals. A studywas conducted using 120, one day-old Ross 308 broiler chicks to evaluate blood and serum chemistry response to direct fed microbes. The broiler chicks were obtained from a reputable hatchery and randomly assigned to four dietary treatments, each with three replicates of ten birds per treatment. The treatments were T1, T2, T3 and T4, with levels of inclusion of direct fed microbes (DFM) at 0, 2.5, 5% and 7.5%, respectively. The birds were assigned to these treatment diets, feed and water was given ad libitum throughout the duration of the experiment which lasted for 56 days. The experimental design was Completely Randomized Design (CRD). At the end of the experiment blood samples were collected from the chickens and taken to the laboratory for haematological and serum chemistry analysis. The haematological characteristics of the broiler chickens showed that there was no significant (P>0.05) in haemoglobin (Hb), Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Red Blood Cell (RBC), White Blood Cell (WBC), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (MCH) and Mean Cell Haemoglobin Concentration (MCHC). The WBC portrayed decreasing trend as the level of DFM increased, also the Hb, MCV and MCH portrayed an increasing trend as the DFM increased in the treatment diet up to the 5% inclusion level. The serum chemistry result shows that there were significant differences (P<0.05) in total serum protein and globulin whereas no significant differences (P>0.05) were observed in serum albumin, glucose, urea and creatinine. It could be concluded that fed diet 2 containing 2.5% DFM performed better as they compete favourably with the control. Broiler chickenss fed diet 2 also had a balanced physiological system