HAEMATOLOGICAL INDICIES AND SERUM BIOCHEMESTRY OF BROILER BIRDS FED VARYING INCLUSION LEVEL OF MONK’S PEPPER (VITEX AGNUS-CASTUS) AND THYME (THYMUS VULGARIS)

Abstract

This study investigated the haematological and serum biochemical indices of broiler birds fed varying level of monk’s pepper and thyme. A total of 90 day old Ross strain commercial broiler chicks were fed for 9 weeks. The birds were randomly allotted to nine treatment experimental diets with two replication of 5 birds each. The diet were formulated with the inclusion of monk’s pepper and thyme at 0 inclusion, 1g of thyme/kg of feed, 1g of monk’s pepper/kg of feed, 1g of thyme and 1g of monk’s pepper, 3g of thyme/kg of feed, 3g of monk’s pepper/kg of feed, 1g of thyme and 2g of monk’spepper/kg of feed, 1g of monk’s pepper and 2g of thyme/kg of feed and 1.5g of thyme and 1.5g of monk’s pepper/kg of feed for T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, and, T9 respectively. The results indicated that dietary thyme and monks pepper significantly (P<0.05) affected all haematological parameters except haemoglobin and lymphocytes. PVC, RBC, TWBC in T7 and T8 were significantly (P<0.05) higher than those in other treatment. Thyme and monks pepper inclusion resulted in a significant (P<0.05) increase in total cholesterol, total protein, Albumin, Globulin, Uric acid, ALT and ALP. However, no significant difference (P>0.05) was observed in the AST across groups. From the result, it was concluded that inclusion of 1g thyme and 2g of monk’s pepper/kg diet to broiler diet improved the blood parameters and general health of broiler chicken.