Abstract
Abstract The present study describes the haematological profile, feeding preference, and comparison of morphometric characters of blue rock pigeon (Columba livia) breeding pairs. For this purpose, 25 pairs (25 samples per sex) were sampled through Mist nets from district Okara and Bahawalnagar, Punjab, Pakistan. Birds were then anaesthetized with a combination of ketamine HCL (10 mg/kg) and diazepam (0.2 mg/kg) and subjected to morphometric measurements. 5µL blood also was taken from the jugular vein of each anaesthetized bird for haematological analysis. Few pairs were also dissected to remove gastrointestinal tracts (GITs) for food preferences. Results revealed that there are no significant differences in the haematological parameters and feeding preference of breeding pairs of Columba livia. The gut analysis further revealed, the major portion of gut contents consisted of pea and corn in most of the pairs. Regarding the mensural measurements, significant differences were recorded in the body weight, length of the longest primary feather, and chest circumference, whereas the rest of the studied parameters remain nonsignificant between sexes. So, it is concluded that apart from 3 morphometric parameters (body weight, length of longest primary feather and chest circumference), both sexes are alike in term of morphometry, haematology and food preference.
Highlights
The blue rock pigeon is a common bird throughout its range, which includes Bhutan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan
The body weight, length of the longest primary feather, and chest circumference were the morphometric parameters that differed significantly in male and female (Figure 1 and Figure 2) while rest of the parameters were non-significant between breeding pairs (Table 4)
Discussion our study did not show any significant differences in breeding pairs of Columba livia, the mean values of haemoglobin concentration, Mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and MCH were found to be higher than Khan et al (2011)
Summary
The blue rock pigeon is a common bird throughout its range, which includes Bhutan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Khan et al (2011) described normal values of complete blood count, (Gayathri and Hegde, 1994) reported some sexual differences in haematology, Gylstorff (1983) reported the effect of age on haematology, and Pavlak et al (2005) reported haematological differences related to age, gender, and season in blue rock pigeon. This technique may aid in the management and improvement of pigeon breeding or the breeding program (Král and Suchý, 2000). The goal of this study is to establish a reference value for haematological parameters
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