EFFECTS OF SEX ON HAEMATOLOGICAL VALUES, BLOOD CHEMISTRY AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF NOILER CHICKEN

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to determine the effects of sex on haematological values, blood chemistry and carcass characteristics of Noiler chicken. A total of one hundred and thirty-six (136) eight weeks old Noilers birds were purchased from the Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme (BSADP). The birds were raised on deep litter system until the age of 18weeks before they were transferred to battery cage housing system. The experiment lasted for three months. The birds were fed uniformly with a standard commercial diet and water was supplied ad-libitum. The result showed that cocks and hens haemoglobin (Hb) and packed cell volume (pcv) values were significantly the same (P<0.05). The result of PCV (Packed Cell Volume) showed that the PCV values were (P<0.05) significantly the same (32.00 and 32.60) for the cocks and hens respectively. This shows that Hb and PCV were not influenced by androgen, which is a hormone that plays a major role in male traits and reproductive activities. The percentage of lymphocytes, neutrophyl, basophyl and eosinophyl were also not significantly different between cocks and hens. The result for biochemical values shows that that there was no significant difference between Noiler cocks and hens in all the parameters tested. From the result it was deduced that dressing percentage was affected by sex, which showed that cocks had higher dressing percentage (77.54) than hens (69.65). From the finding of this study it was concluded that there were no significant differences in haematological and biochemical values between sexes, however cocks showed superior dressing percentage.