Volume 59, Issue 330, June 2023

Hematological responses of broiler chickens to graded levels of Vitamin C

Johnson NC¹, Diri M^1♦, Woke JA¹, Leton De-Great BC²

¹Department of Animal Science, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
²Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Animal Science, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

One hundred and twenty-day old-chicks were used to investigate hematological responses of broiler chickens to graded levels of vitamins C. Chicks were brooded and similarly managed for 4 weeks to fully adapt them to their environment. After this, animals were randomly assigned to 4 dietary treatments with 30 birds/treatment and 3 replicates of 10 birds/replicate as: T₁ (control diet, contained basal level of vitamin C 30mg/kg of diet), T₂ (diet 2, contained 200mg of vitamin C/kg of diet), T₃ (diet 3, contained 300mg of vitamin C/kg of diet) and T₄ (diet 4, contained 400mg of vitamin C/kg of diet), respectively. The animals received their respective diets for 4 weeks. 9 birds consisting of 3 birds from each replicate per treatment were sacrificed and their blood collected for analyses: Packed cell volume (PCV), haemoblobin (Hb), red blood cell (RBC), white blood cell (WBC) and their differentials: Neutrophil (NEU), lymphocytes (LYM), monocytes (MON), oenophile (EON) and basophile (BAS). PCV of the T₁ animals was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than those of T₂, T₃ and T₄ groups. Hb concentration of T₁ group animals was significantly (P < 0.05) lower compared with T₂, T₃ and T₄ groups. The trend was similar in the RBC as there were significant differences (P < 0.05) in the RBC amongst treatment groups. There were no differences in the WBC (P > 0.05) for all treatment groups. Also, there were no differences (P > 0.05) in the WBC differentials for all treatment groups. It was concluded that vitamin C can improve the quality of lives for broiler chickens, especially during their growth processes via its positive effects on PCV, RBC and Hb.

Keywords: Haematology, Packed cell volume, Haemoglobin, Red and White blood cells and the Broiler chicken

Discovery, 2023, 59, e78d1262

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Published: June 2023